Poland must secure Eastern borders before enjoying benefits of border-free EU

The European Union said on Friday that it would enlarge its border-free Schengen zone to include new member states, but this is unlikely to happen before 2005 because sharing law enforcement information had to be updated.The planned expansion in 2004 would push the bloc's external frontier to Ukraine and Belarus. Many candidate countries currently serve as transit points for drugs and sex workers smuggled into the bloc. Poland will be expected to beef up border patrols with Ukraine and Belarus before they can join Schengen, which was set up in 1985 to remove internal border controls."With the system we have today, it is not possible to actually enlarge Schengen," said Justice Minister Lene Espersen of Denmark, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency. She told a news conference that the EU needed to update the so-called Schengen Information System, a database for sharing information between law inforcement bodies and that this could not be done before 2005."You would be very optimistic if you think any of the candidate countries will be ready before then," she said. Espersen added that getting Ireland and Britain, the only current members outside the Schengen area, to join was a priority before enlarging the area. The arrangements have irritated some candidates who feel they will have to pay the costs of Schengen without reaping the benefits."We need to be absolutely 100% certain that (border controls) are fully operational before they join," she concluded. (Reuters)