Schengen zone expanded to allow border-free travel in nine more European countries
December 26th, 2007 by Tim Uden
A few days ago the Schengen zone was expanded to allow visa-free travel between nine more European countries.
The new Schengen countries are Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. This brings the list of countries participating in the Schengen scheme to 24 (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden).
The Schengen Agreement lets you travel without passport checks when passing between participating countries. In theory it sounds like a great idea, especially if you live in one of the Schengen countries or if you are on a very short trip; but it can cause big problems for many travellers making a longer European tour.
The problem is that the Schengen Agreement only lets you spend up to 90 days within a six-month period. This may have been fine back in 1995 when there were only 10 countries in the Schengen zone; but let’s face it, 90 days just isn’t enough time to visit everywhere in 24 countries. If you want to travel for longer than 90 days - and many people reading this site are planning much longer trips - then you need to plan your travel to spend more time outside the Schengen zone. That means you need to visit countries outside the zone such as Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Croatia, Georgia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom or territories of Schengen countries that lie outside the Schengen zone such as Heligoland (Germany) or Svarlbard (Norway).
This may lead to a boom in travel to Andorra and the British Isles, although it is more likely that the tourism industry in cheaper countries in the Balkans and the Caucasus will benefit from travellers waiting out their time before they can re-enter the Schengen zone.
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