It's only about 18 years ago that a short drive eastwards from Vienna ended at the iron curtain. The border was marked by barbed wire, gun towers, well armed soldiers and fierce dogs. The gun-towers and the dogs are long gone and next month even the passport-control will disappear.
Photo: European Commission
European Union interior ministers voted this week to extend the border-free Schengen zone to nine additional member states on December 21st. Among those states are The Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland. Bettanna Bapuly is a researcher and lawyer at the Austrian Academy of Sciences who has studied the impact of the border-free zone. Kerry Skyring asked her - how important is border free travel for Central Europe?
