7 April 2005

Brussels - Germany's eastern border controls will disappear when the European Union's new members from central and eastern European join the Schengen frontier-free bloc in October 2007.

Current border controls - for instance between Germany and Poland and Austria and Slovakia - would not exist after that date, EU justice affairs chief Franco Frattini said on Wednesday.

"This is a decision we have taken," Frattini said, adding, however, that the new EU states' integration into the bloc would depend on the installation of adequate Schengen data exchange and information systems.

The European Commission was ready to help the new member states to meet Schengen requirements, Frattini said.

Countries signing up to the Schengen pact - named after a small border town in Luxembourg - agree to end all internal border checkpoints and controls.

The 15 Schengen countries currently include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden as well as non-EU states Norway and Iceland.

DPA

Subject: German news