What does Schengen mean for central Europe?
The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia made plans to join the Schengen agreement together in 2006 or 2007. They're encouraging Slovenia to join with them. But there may be problems - for instance Austria has often complained of cheap labour from its neighbours flooding the local job market. Demographer Rainer Muenz talks about what Schengen means for the candidate countries of Central Europe.
What is the biggest challenge that future EU members will face along the new eastern border?
"This will become an obstacle for the free flow of people say between the Ukraine and Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, between Belarus and Poland or Lithuania. There are border controls there already, but these border controls will become stricter and at the same time there will be visa requirements. And in certain cases this just cuts across ethnic communities because there are ethnic polish minorities in Lithuania, but also in Belarussia. In Ukraine there are ethnic Hungarian minorities and these people over the last couple of years had freedom to move to their say, fellow constituents and co-ethnics in the neighbouring countries - but this will become more difficult."
What affect, if any, will joining the Schengen agreement have on the labour migration to the EU?
"Formal labour migration will not be affected because Schengen doesn't give you any right to work in a particular EU country- it just gives you the possibility to cross the European Union without showing your passport. But it might become easier for Poles and Czech and Slovaks and Hungarians to go to Germany or Austria or Belgium when there is no border control and to enter in formal labour markets. But in fact they're already doing so now because there are no visa requirements for Poles or Czechs or Slovaks or Hungarians. Today when they want to enter the E.U they just have to show their passports and in future they won't even have to show their passports."
How might Austria benefit from the further opening of borders such as through this agreement?
"Austria is one of the main winners of the lifting of the iron curtain. Vienna has become a lot more important as a headquarter for European and trans-national corporations who are active in central and Eastern Europe. Many of them have their central and eastern European headquarters in Vienna so there is an economic gain. But the east of Austria has profited at a psychological level because just the dismantling of the iron curtain has meant that dead ends have turned into neighbourhoods."
What are in your view potential drawbacks for new E.U members as they evolve to become receiving countries within the new borders of Europe?
"When we look at it from a narrow perspective, we can see this is an additional supply on our western European labour market. In a medium range perspective, it's clear that the countries in central and Eastern Europe have the same demographic problems that western European countries have. This is an aging and shrinking labour force. This is a declining population. So maybe in 10 - 15 years from now most countries in central and eastern Europe may also be in a position where they have to actively recruit foreign labour and then the countries of Europe will become competitors on a world market for talented people - unless there is a common European migration and recruitment policy by then."
