SKOFIJE, Slovenia (AFP) — EU, Slovenian and Hungarian dignitaries took part in a last round of celebrations Saturday to welcome nine mainly eastern European countries into the passport-free Schengen zone.
A day after borders were lifted, making it now possible to travel from Estonia to Portugal without passport controls, top officials gathered in Skofije on the Italian-Slovenian border for a final ceremony that ended three days of festivities along the path of the former Iron Curtain.
"Something is happening today that 15 years ago, we could not have even dreamt of: the physical borders are falling," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said at the ceremony.
He recalled: "Twenty years ago at this very border -- which was then still the border of Yugoslavia -- people were shot at if they tried to cross illegally."
"That was Europe 20 years ago, Europe divided, a great part of Europe without access to freedom," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso added.
"That is why I can't be pessimistic about the future (of the EU), when I see where we are now and where we come from."
He noted that the lifting of the barriers was more than a symbolic or political gesture, and that it had "concrete meaning" for Europeans, allowing easier travel, improving relations between states and enhancing growth and employment.
Some older Schengen countries have voiced concern that the new members will not be able to ensure security and that eastern European criminals will descend en masse on Western Europe.
But Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said: "We can assure you that yesterday's opening of the borders did not represent a drop of security, but an increase of freedom."
Slovenia, the first former Yugoslav state to join the European Union and the eurozone, will now control 760 kilometres (472 miles) of the Schengen border.
But Jansa predicted that the passport-free zone would extend further still in the future: "The expansion of the Schengen area is not over yet," he said.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, noted meanwhile: "We celebrate the best of Europe, the best of European values, democracy, peace, freedom... Congratulations to Italy, Slovenia, and viva Europa!"
Symbolically handing over the six-month rotating EU presidency to Slovenia, he added: "I cannot imagine a better way to finish a presidency."
Earlier Saturday, Socrates had taken part in another ceremony at Hegyeshalom, on the Austro-Hungarian border near Slovakia, alongside Barroso, Hungarian premier Ferenc Gyurcsany, his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico and Austrian Interior Minister Guenther Platter.
Despite the biting cold, the leaders were all smiles as they posed in front of a sign proclaiming a "borderless Europe" in several languages, and Gyurcsany declared: "We are prepared to defend and strengthen Europe as proud Hungarians."
Platter added: "With the opening of the borders, we have overcome the partition of Europe. This is a great day for Austria, for all new Schengen states and most of all for Europe."
The ceremony ended with the inauguration of a monument indicating the distances from Hegyeshalom to all European capitals.
At midnight on Friday, nine new countries -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia -- joined the 15 nations already in the no-passport Schengen zone.
European leaders hailed the entry of these mainly ex-communist states into Schengen as border posts were symbolically lifted or sawed through, less than 20 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
A total of 400 million people from 24 countries will now be able to move freely throughout Europe.
The old signatories of the 1985 Schengen Agreement included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
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