The European Union will decide in December when to lift the border restrictions between its 10 new members and the bloc's older states, the EU's justice and interior ministers said today.
The EU had planned to let the 10 mostly ex-communist states that entered the bloc two years ago into the free zone in October 2007. But it acknowledged last month that it was running late, sparking protests by the newer members.
The so-called Schengen area, which includes 13 old EU member states plus Norway and Iceland, but excludes Britain and Ireland, has no internal border posts and checks, and a common Schengen visa allows free movement in all participating countries.
EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini told a news briefing he hoped the restrictions would be lifted by the end of 2008.
A beefed-up police database for the border-free zone will be ready only in June 2008, the ministers said. The original plan was to have it ready before lifting the restrictions.
The newcomers are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Some diplomats from new member states say privately some old EU countries may be using technical hurdles as a pretext to delay the Schengen enlargement at a time of growing public fears about the impact of immigration.