Schengen Zone Expands

Today, 9 countries, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia joined the Schengen zone. The Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel across the area, now embraces 24 countries. Now it's possible to travel all the way from Lisbon in Portugal to Tallinn in Estonia without any border control.Ceremonies of taking down border check crossings were help on the borders of the newly joined countries.Initially lifting the border control involves just land and sea borders but will include airports in march 2008.BBC