BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/12/2007

"New Iron Curtain" Descends as Free-Travel Zone Splits Europe

By James M. Gomez and Andrea Dudikova

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Along a tree-lined road in northeastern Lithuania, once part of the Soviet Union, Giedrius Matkevicius was on the prowl for invaders from neighboring Belarus, another ex-Soviet state.

``Our job has become more important, more significant, now that we have to guard the external border of the EU,'' the 36- year-old customs officer said as he monitored a bank of computers in a cement and sheet-metal complex at the frontier. Nearby, a female colleague in an olive-green uniform scanned live images of snowy fields, truck inspections and passing cars.

Where only tall pines once separated the countries, a 679- kilometer (422-mile) fence now reminds Belarusians they are outsiders in a European Union that includes Lithuania. The line becomes even more pronounced on Dec. 21, when Lithuania and seven other ex-communist nations join a club within the EU club: the so-called Schengen Zone, where citizens and tourists travel without passports.

Schengen members are open to each other, but not to the outside world. So the EU has erected a $2 billion barrier of barbed wire, cameras and motion detectors along its eastern frontiers, themselves new since the union's enlargement three years ago. The move has raised protests among residents along both sides of the border, two decades after Communism's collapse heralded an end to a divided Europe.

Cafe Complaint

``It's going to be a new Iron Curtain for all intents and purposes,'' Samuel Horkay, an ethnic Hungarian who is a Ukrainian citizen, said as he sat in a cafe on the Ukrainian side of the border. ``That's a strong way to put it, but Europe loves to guard its borders.'' Horkay, 59, crosses the border at least twice a year to see his ailing mother in the Hungarian village of Sarospatak.

Ukrainians, Belarusians, Serbs and Croats say they will be isolated from family members, while owners of businesses that depend on cross-border traffic fret about the economic impact.

``Poland's entrance into the Schengen zone must not create new barriers for people of our countries,'' Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who won office on his support for integration with the EU, said at a Kiev press conference on Dec. 6.

The Schengen zone, named for the wine-making town in Luxembourg where the agreement was signed in 1985, currently allows unhindered travel between 13 western EU countries plus the non-EU states of Norway and Iceland. The U.K. and Ireland, both EU members, have opted out of the program.

Road, Rail and Sea

The zone makes it easier for EU citizens to travel and spend freely. This month's expansion, the largest since Schengen was conceived, will allow free road, rail and sea travel between older EU nations and the ex-communist members -- Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia -- plus Malta, all of which joined in 2004. Unfettered air travel begins at the end of March.

In most of the new Schengen nations, ``there are generations that went through decades without truly having the freedom to travel,'' said Friso Roscam Abbing, a spokesman for EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini. ``For them, this is an incredibly important issue.''

The Schengen system is designed to foil smugglers and human traffickers dealing in prostitution and forced labor.

To meet the standards, the EU's eastern members had to beef up security on the 6,398-kilometer land and sea frontier. Brussels contributed $1.5 billion, while individual governments added as much as $500 million.

Worth Paying

Florian Geyer, a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said the enhanced security is a price worth paying for freedom inside the zone. ``This is a negative outcome, but otherwise, I think it would not be politically possible to achieve the free-area zone,'' he said.

Cyprus, which also became an EU member three years ago, is working to join Schengen in 2009 along with non-EU-member Switzerland. Romania and Bulgaria may be accepted in 2011, Roscam Abbing said.

Meanwhile, residents outside the Schengen line will face longer border lines and other impediments. Ukrainians, for instance, will face a tourist entry visa fee of as much as 35 euros ($51), if they can get one at all.

Oksana Doroshenko, a 35-year-old Kiev schoolteacher, said she was forced to drop plans recently to visit Krakow after the Polish consulate refused to give her and a friend tourist visas, without saying why.

``I don't know whether the situation will improve some day, but now it will only get worse,'' she said.

`A Lot Harder'

Some on the other side of the line aren't happy either. Vladimir Ondrus, a Slovak taxi driver who regularly fills his gas tank in Ukraine, where pump prices are half those at home, lamented that ``once Schengen is in place, this type of shopping will get a lot harder.''

The situation may be even more dire for Marija Zamkevic, a Lithuanian who regularly enters Belarus to bring her aging mother back from Minsk for short visits.

Under Soviet rule, which ended with Lithuania's independence in 1990, there was no border between Belarus and Lithuania. Now, ``I'm worried how Schengen will affect our mom,'' Zamkevic said as her gray-haired mother sat in the back seat of their white car at the Belarus border, her mouth set in a tight frown. ``How difficult it will be?'' she asked. ``I don't know.''

Source:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a1gLY0UZXj6U&refer=home