Czechs and Slovaks ‘reunited’ by Schengen passport-free zone

While a large majority of Czechs and Slovaks support their country’s accession to Schengen, in Germany and Austria, fears are being raised over a potential invasion of criminals and prostitutes across the border. Meanwhile, the move is already erecting new barriers for Ukrainians trying to enter the EU, EURACTIV Czech Republic and Slovakia report.

With Schengen entering into force, conditions for entering the EU and crossing its external borders, as well as policy on issuing visas, have been harmonised. The Schengen system allows citizens of participating states to move freely within the area and foreigners to travel throughout the zone on a single visa. 

• German and Austrian fears 

Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini’s reference to the possible enlargement of the Schengen area to include eastern and central European states from April 2005 was initially met with deep scepticism among the inhabitants of the German and Austrian border regions – the western neighbours of the Czech Republic. They expressed fears that Schengen extension would allow criminals and prostitutes from the new eastern members to cross the border more easily. 

These reservations from “Old Europe”, together with Frattini’s claims that technical problems in terms of border security could delay accession fueled a feeling in the Czech Republic and other eastern and central European states that they were not being welcomed into the “club”. 

Former Czech interior minister Frantisek Buban said that the references to technical problems were simply serving as a cover to hide the “unwillingness of some countries that new member states become part of the system”. 

The Czech and Slovak governments countered those claims by making clear that a delay would be perceived as discrimination and demanded that the EU to stick to the reference date in the original agreement. 

The Czech Republic, together with other central European states, asked the Commission for compensation for the delay. Whereas the majority of Slovaks welcome the opening of borders, hoping that travelling will become easier, residents in the Slovak-Ukrainian border regions view Schengen enlargement in a very different light. 

• New barrier between Slovakia and Ukraine
   

Slovakia – unlike its Czech neighbour, which is solely surrounded by Schengen members – shares a 97-kilometre border with the Ukraine, which is not a Schengen member and has no prospect of membership. 

To monitor and secure this border, 900 policemen and 250 cameras are now in place. 

For many, living in the eastern part of Slovakia makes it much easier to do business in the Ukraine than taking a trip to the capital on the other side of the country. Therefore they do not mind as much about the vanishing Slovak-Austrian border but are concerned about the Slovak–Ukrainian one, says Vladimir Ben?, an analyst at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. 

Negotiations in the run-up to the decision to extend the Schengen area were accompanied by worries on the Ukrainian side as well. Many Ukrainians fear the interruption of family ties and decreasing motivation among investors to do business across the Schengen border. 

• Issuing visas to non-Schengen countries
   

The price and availability of Schengen visas is another issue of concern. Experts warn that the complicated procedure of obtaining a Schengen visa is likely to have a negative impact on the tourism industry in eastern Slovakia. 

Citizens along the border are pinning their hopes onto a bilateral agreement between the Slovak Republic and the Ukraine on local border traffic, which the authorities have promised to deliver in early 2008. According to this agreement, people living 50km from the border should not be subject to the Schengen visa regime. 

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed his hope that better coordination will be achieved between Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, which are simultaneously entering the Schengen zone, and with Ukraine in terms of facilitating the visa process.

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