A big welcome to Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, all due to become the newest members of the European Union and its Schengen zone at midnight tonight. As the BBC reports, “The enlargement will allow passport-free travel across 24 European states, although travellers can be asked to carry documents by any of the countries concerned.”
Very impressive evolution of the European Union, a structure that initially seemed totally untenable, and then evolved into seeming to be sucking the very personality and life out of individual nations with its normalization of currency and culture. Today, though, it is clearly a boon to the historically troubled greater Europe, helping to settle centuries-old rifts between nations and offering a great opportunity for this historically troubled area of the world to live in harmony.
Now if we could just see the European Union and its Schengen zone model as a basis for a reinvention of the nation-states of the Middle East, we could perhaps see a greater period of global peace in our time than has ever been before…
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Now if only the U.S. would join the Schengen Treaty instead of trying to find a way to make it harder for law-abiding European citizens to visit… They all treat me, an American, very well; why can’t we return the favor?
It was nice to drive across the German – Polish border last Friday without stopping. And coming back a couple days ago? Well, without the border wait, we were able to travel 450 miles in less than seven hours — without going over the recommended German Autobahn speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour.
Europe just got smaller and more “explorable”.
–Tom
Somewhere in Germany
P.S. — There is a difference between the European Union, the Schengen Treaty, and the Euro Zone. They are three separate entities. It does get confusing!