Brussels, 12/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - Land border controls between Switzerland and the 24 countries that currently make up the Schengen Area were lifted on Friday 12 December, although there is still concern that voting could fail in February 2009 over the free movement of workers. The lifting of air border controls will take effect on 29 March 2009, allowing passengers on flights from countries of the Schengen Area to no longer be controlled upon entry to Switzerland. “My sincere congratulations to Switzerland!”, said European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. “Today, Switzerland has once again shown its commitment to cooperating as closely as possible with the European Union for the benefit of the Swiss people”, he added. Jacques Barrot, European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, put in: “Today marks an important step forward in relations between the EU and Switzerland. I am glad that citizens of the EU and of Switzerland can benefit from the border-free area, which today embraces its 25th member”. The main change will be for non-Europeans living in Switzerland, who had hitherto needed a visa to go to the Schengen Area. An Indian national living in Switzerland may, for example, now go to France for three months without requiring a visa. In the same way, the holders of a Schengen visa will not need another visa to enter Switzerland. The other major change concerns police cooperation and prosecution throughout the area as, since August, Switzerland has had access to the Schengen Information System (SIS), the electronic database of persons and goods being sought. On the other hand, the 41 km of border between Switzerland and Liechtenstein should be closed for the first time in 84 years in order to meet the high security standards required of Schengen Area borders. The small principality of 160 sq km and 35,000 inhabitants pinched in between Switzerland and Austria is not expected to be part of the Schengen Area until end 2009 after an assessment has been carried out. For now, the member states, and especially Germany, are not very inclined to allow it to join as the small state would, it is claimed, not do enough to combat tax evasion.
During a meeting with the Swiss media, Mr Barrot nonetheless restated the importance that the Commission grants to the vote on 8 February 2009 regarding renewal of free movement of workers, and its extension to Romania and Bulgaria. “There is obviously a problem of compatibility between a negative vote refusing this freedom of movement and at the same time accession to Schengen”, the commissioner stressed. “It is not a question of threatening Switzerland, whose sovereignty we respect. But there is a certain de facto contradiction on which the EU could reflect some time to perhaps result in serious questioning of access to Schengen by the Swiss Confederation”, he added. The commissioner therefore hopes that Swiss citizens will, at the time of voting, calculate the importance of free movement within the European area. Mr Barrot also pointed out that a major vote would be held in May on biometric passports. With accession to the Schengen Area, what is happening about Switzerland's entry to the EU? “It is fair to say that Schengen will allow Switzerland to find its normal place at the heart of Europe. I personally greatly believe in very pragmatic, very concrete synergies. And, who knows? Perhaps some day or other this will result in a very great association”, the commissioner concluded. (B.C./transl.jl)