TALLINN - The Baltic nations are on track to be admitted to the Schengen border-free zone by December in what a top EU official called a "Christmas gift" to new member states.
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said the Schengen zone accession timeline would see Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania drop their land borders by December 2007 and their airport borders by March 2008.
He said a wider borderless Europe would be a "Christmas gift" to all citizens, particularly those in the Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004.
EU officials have made several trips to Baltic countries to inspect border controls.
While the Justice Commissioner has declared the new states ready to join the zone, the final decision will rest with the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, which meets in November.
The council, which is made up of interior affairs ministers from "old" EU member states, will consider the readiness of each country on an individual basis.
"If all goes according to schedule, the land and sea borders will come down in mid-December," a spokesman for Frattini said.
"The council will consider if they have fulfilled all their Schengen requirements, such as their information systems, data protection, cooperation between law enforcement authorities, and their external border controls."
"If all is answered 'yes,' then the council must decide unanimously, with not one dissenting vote."
In Estonia, the Interior Affairs Ministry has indicated it is ready to meet all the requirements of Schengen accession.
A ministry spokeswoman told The Baltic Times that recent inspections had returned positive feedback.
"The work group acknowledged the positive developments, progress and good work and declared that the land border of Estonia corresponds to Schengen requirements," she said.
Concern was raised about the low number of border guards working for the customs service, which is experiencing difficulty in retaining staff. "The current lack of border guards is not an obstruction to the fulfillment of the requirement," the spokeswoman said.
Further checks are due in September, when Estonia's use of the Schengen information system and the Tallinn Airport security systems will be scrutinized.
