The EU

EU extends passport-free zone

Border controls in European states from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic are set to cease, as most of the EU's newest members join the bloc's passport-free travel zone.

The entry of nine nations into the EU's Schengen area at midnight on Thursday means citizens can travel between 24 European nations without facing border checks.

"Together we have overcome border controls as man-made obstacles to peace, freedom and unity in Europe," declared Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president.

Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta are the new Schengen members.

As a condition for joining, the new members have tightened controls on their borders with non-EU nations and linked into an information exchange system for police and border guards around the EU, measures which Barroso said will boost security.

The UK is the only nation who has not signed up to this and its because the Government is scared shitless of the Daily Mail. They are frightened of signing the treaty because they might get bad press.

There is a certain section here in the UK who go apeshit over anything EU related and I think its because the majority are a bunch of racists

Its pretty sad that its 2007 and Britain still cannot move on and accept that we're European, I mean jeez stop with the umming and arring, make a commitment.

Of course the EU has problems, so does all big organizations. But the xenophobia coming from the Little Englander group does anger me, they go on about wanting to withdraw from the EU, but if they want that they should go and pull out of the UN, NATO, The World Bank, WHO and dozens of other international organizations. They need to realize that Britain is a two bit ex imperial backwater