The Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7153490.stm


Well, say, what do you think/feel about this latest development? Have you seen the News about this? Will any of it affect you in someway?

Of course, this is great news for many people in those other countries, like for example Estonia, etc, who will be more than eager to migrate over to greener pastures, and no doubt many of them will find there way into Spain, and snap-up many low paid jobs, thus flooding the labor market with yet another new wave of cheap labor, so how do you feel about all that?

Nine mostly ex-communist states have joined the Schengen zone.

The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined the zone.

It's possibly a good thing in disguise for many Europeans, with boarder controls relaxed & all, more freedom to go and do some Job seeking in other European/Schengen countries, but perhaps not of much significance to Non EU citizens, from the US and other international countries for example, or is it? It has been stated on the website, that those with a "Schengen Visa" will also be able to travel across the boarders, but might still need to provide significant documentation to support their movement within the Schengen zone, and this wouldn't surprise me, given the current state of security all over Europe, which I've no doubt will be with us for quite some time to come.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7153490.stm

Quote:
Although the enlargement allows passport-free travel throughout the area, travellers can be asked to carry documents by any of the countries concerned.

For non-EU nationals, a Schengen visa allows travel across all the participating countries.

The UK and Ireland are not involved in the zone - which embraces 400 Million people - but they have signed up to agreements on security.



A significant element of the Schengen agreement is the Schengen Information Service (SIS) which features an enormous database in the French city of Strasbourg.

The SIS database enables police in any Schengen state to find out whether a suspect has been involved in any kind of crime across the EU.

These two statements are of particular concern, to everyone, and why? simply because anyone who moves from point A to point B in order to do anything, work, study, etc, will have to be included in this SIS database, and will undoubtedly be checked-out and looked at closely at some point, which is fine if you've got nothing to hide, if you've done nothing wrong, you've nothing to worry about, right? but what about the word "Suspect" that they use? how do they determine who is a suspect and who isn't? and suspected of what? will they have to look at and check-out every single individual in that database, in order to determine whether or not they are considered as being a suspect? Are they just using this whole thing as a vehicle to flush out Illegal immigrants? or those that they consider to be potential terrorists? I suspect there is a hidden agenda behind all of this opening up of the borders, but no doubt there are numerous theories floating around.

Well anyway, your thoughts on this please, good thing? or not so good? and what difference (if any) will it make to all the north American expats in Spain? will this make it even harder for them, more difficult to find and maintain sustainable work, which pays enough to exist on? Also, how do you feel about being included in the SIS database? and how do you feel about your movements being tracked & monitored? Do you think this will put a lot of Americans off of wanting to stay in Spain for long? at least for any longer than 90 days at a time!


Again, the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7153490.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

What you will need to travel;
http://europa.eu/abc/travel/doc/index_en.htm

Assurances over US biometric data
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7158723.stm

Google search for Schengen treaty
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=The+Schengen+treaty&btnG=Google+Search

multimadrid Search for "Schengen" post's
http://spaintalk.multimadrid.org/groupee/forums?a=search&reqWords=Schengen

Saludos y feliz navidad.

Angelo
.

I think you mean ´border.´

As an American, I´m all for open borders. I just wish, with all this high-tech information exchange and exalted diplomacy going on, someone would figure out a way to make a USA drivers license be interchangeable with a Spanish one.

It would make sense, seeing as you guys already drive on the right hand side of the street, so apart from a few differences in the road signs theres no need for any real changes to the driving, but of course one must be able to read and fully understand what some of those signs are telling you in Spanish.


Feliz Navidad.