Schengen zone enlargement put back at least a year

The Czech Republic and the other nine countries which joined the European Union in 2004 face a delay of at least a year before borders with the EU's 15 other states are opened, according to a European Commission report quoted by Reuters. The EU had previously planned to let the 10 states into its border-free Schengen area in October 2007 - the European Commission now says technical and legal problems will probably mean that Schengen will not be expanded until October 2008.

The Czech Republic and a number of other countries had called earlier in the week for the original timetable to be respected.