Hi, I know that a bunch of countries will be joining the EU very soon (Poland, Slovakia, etc.).

Is there information as to whether they plan to adopt the Schengen Treaty? Any ideas as to when and if the Schengen Visa will be accepted by these countries?

Thanks!

Not all the EU countries are part of the Shengen Visa agreement, and some countries which are Not part of the EU are part of the agreement. (Norway and Iceland).
Anyway, my point is that this is very much a seperate deal. It's up to each country to decide if and when they want to join.
Personally I did not hear anything about the new EU members joing the Shengen agreement anytime soon.
For more info look here:
http://www.eurovisa.info

Thanks AA -- yes, I'm aware that not all the EU members are Schengen states. Well, a good example is the UK, of course. And I guess it goes both ways.

I was curious about Poland, so I did some web searches. This is one article I was able to find:

http://www.glavred.info/eng/index.php?art=89169001

It looks like the Schengen issue is separate, but it also seems to be implied that Schengen visa holders may be able to transit in Poland for a period under five days until Poland eventually signs the Schengen treaty. I was curious so I wrote the Polish consulate in DC. I suppose I could call them too.

In case people are interested or are wondering, here's a list of the ten countries slated to join the EU in May:

http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040117023922.9p4sueq2

It's not really up to each of the new countries to decide when they sign Schengen: more to the point, it's up to the current Schengen members to decide when to let them sign.

The Schengen treaty allows totally free movement - and therefore totally free residence for citizens of Schengen countries. The issue of allowing citizens of 10, much poorer, countries uncontrolled freedom to live (and, in practice work) in the dozen or so, much richer, current Schengen member states is highly controversial. Don't expect to see much movement on this for some years - probably not (to use the jargon) until the derogation on free movement expires - which I think is 2007.

Ironically, the UK and Ireland - the two countries outside Schengen - are the only two countries that are allowing citizens of the new states uncontrolled freedom to live and work in our countries. The Schengen states' grand gestures of European solidarity don't extend to allowing their poor neighbours to live or work in their countries.

"derogation on free movement" -- meaning?

I guess I didn't understand the full implications of the treaty -- I've thought of this just as an abolition of border controls, but, of course, logically, that leads to the scenarios you're painting.

There was an article in the New York Times yesterday about how Germany is in trouble right now. A pretty interesting read. One of the concerns, of course, is the impending entry of Poland into the EU, which will probably lead to increased competition via cheap labor, etc.

"Derogation"

A piece of EU jargon, for which I apologise. Whenever the EU invents a new commitment, the ritual is that many member states decide they can't live up to that for a while. So they get a derogation for a couple of years - freedom not to carry out that particular programme (such as a limit on thr number of hours a week workers can work) until they're sorted themselves out.

All the current members had the right, when the new 10 signed, to opt out of the obligation to allow citizens of all EU states unlimited rights to live and work. I think that derogation lasted till 2007, but haven't the energy to track down the carefully hidden page on the EU website.

13 of the EU states have invoked that derogation.

The result, BTW, is that the NYTimes article is probably wrong. Poles - or the even more poorly paid Balts - won't be allowed to work in Germany on May 1. EU membership for the new 10 isn't likely to lead to a flood of factories closing in the old countries, since the new 10 have had virtually unlimited free trade with the EU for the past five years on everything but agriculture - and the EU isn't letting the new 10 have the same access to the agriculture pork barrel that keeps many farmers in the current 15 reasonably content. So not very much changes, except that EU infrastructure subsidies will be diverted to the East from places like the Mezzogiorno, Merseyside and Andalucia.

There are going to be some very pissed off Central Europeans when all this dawns on them. They can always go and be plumbers in London. But that's not everyone's perfect life.

Hi, I don't to want to misrepresent the NYT, so it's better that I post a link to the article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/in...pe/24LETT.html

But anyway, here's a quote:

"the fear that with the imminent enlargement of the European Union, a lot of far cheaper countries to the East ? Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Baltic states ? are going to draw industries and jobs away from Germany."

Actually what's also interesting to me is that the UK seems to have quite a liberal immigration policy (compared to the US, for example) as long as you're a skilled worker. This seems to be confirmed by what you say about its extending various benefits to the new EU countries.