Malta marked its entry into Europe’s borderless Schengen zone yesterday with a governmental delegation departing by sea for Pozzallo, Sicily as dawn broke over the Grand Harbour.
As of yesterday, Maltese travelling abroad by sea to other Schengen member states such as Italy no longer required passport checks or border controls. Such controls for air travel, meanwhile, will remain in place until they are similarly lifted in March.
Malta was one of nine EU member states joining the Schengen zone yesterday, bringing the number of states with seamless travel between each other land or sea to a total of 24. The passport-free area now stretches over 4,000 kilometres from Portugal to Poland and from Iceland to Estonia.
Along with Malta, land and sea border controls were yesterday lifted in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Landing by catamaran in Pozzallo yesterday morning, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg was greeted by Italian Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Bobo Craxi, son of the former Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi, a host of other Italian officials, a military band playing the Italian national anthem and an official salute for the occasion.
Travelling with Dr Borg as part of the Maltese delegation was Competitiveness and Communications Minister Censu Galea, Police Commissioner John Rizzo, Parliamentary Secretary Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Armed Forces of Malta Brigadier Carmelo Vassallo and other officials.
Italian Ambassador to Malta Paolo Andrea Trabalza also joined the Maltese delegation for yesterday’s symbolic one and a half hour crossing of the Malta-Sicily channel.
Speaking yesterday morning, Dr Borg remarked that Malta is now more European after yesterday’s lifting of borders, while Malta’s euro adoption at the year’s inception would mean Malta was accomplishing two historic feats integrating itself further into the European ideal in practically one fell swoop.
Both Dr Craxi and Dr Borg, representing their respective governments, agreed on the friendship shared by Malta and Italy and forecast that relationship to be strengthened on a number of fronts following Malta’s accession to the Schengen area.
Dr Craxi commented, “Malta and Italy are only divided by the sea, and as such the lifting of sea borders between the countries can only be described as ‘historic’.
“Our countries have been collaborating for centuries, but we must now enhance our bilateral cooperation and aspire to bring our peoples, students and businesses even closer together.”
Dr Borg observed how Italy had traditionally backed Malta’s aspirations as a nation - from supporting the country’s EU membership bid to the five Italian financial protocols, the first of which Bobo Craxi’s father had seen into being when prime minister.
Malta had been given the go-ahead for Schengen entry some two years ago but had to overcome a number of hurdles in meeting with the zone’s strict border control criteria.
These included adhering to the zone’s common visa policy, as visas issued for Malta will now effectively serve as visas for the whole 24-country Schengen zone.
Malta also had to come in line with the Schengen Information System, which holds real-time data on wanted people in other Schengen member states in an enormous database in the French city of Strasbourg.
The SIS database enables police in any Schengen state to find out whether a suspect has been involved in any kind of crime across the EU.
The Maltese SIS is housed and operated by the new Sirene Unit within the Malta Police Corps, which runs a 24/7 shift of officers on the alert for any newly flagged messages on wanted or suspect persons or stolen property coming through the system from other member states.
Speaking to The Malta Independent yesterday, Dr Borg commented that the common visa policy and the integration into the SIS were the two major stones overturned in meeting Schengen area requirements.
Although some European leaders have expressed concern over the opening of borders and raised alarm bells over the potential of increased levels of imported criminality, particularly from Eastern European states, Dr Borg commented that the Schengen system’s checks and balances, in particular through the SIS, have been designed to actually increase border security.
“This is why,” he explained, “the dismantling of the internal frontiers has been accompanied in a parallel manner with measures - specifically the SIS and the European arrest warrant - aimed at securing the external frontiers.”
Italian Capo della Polizia Antonio Manganelli, also on hand yesterday for the Maltese government delegation’s visit, expressed a similar opinion when he remarked he does not foresee an influx of criminals with the lifting of borders, of which Italy has many by both land and sea.
In terms of the advent of the lifting of air borders come March, Malta has accomplished the additional task of creating new sections at the airport – one for travellers incoming from Schengen zone countries, and another for those arriving from non-Schengen states.
“The real fruition of Malta’s Schengen membership,” he added, “will come when air travel to and from Malta becomes passport-free, since most Maltese travel by air.”
Dr Borg left Sicily yesterday for Trieste, where he will mark the lifting of sea borders along Italian Home Affairs Minister Giuliani Amato and other European dignitaries still to be confirmed.
The Schengen zone is named after eponymous village in Luxemburg when the Luxembourgian, German and French borders meet, and where the agreement was first signed by France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in 1985. Since then Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, as well as non-EU nations Norway and Iceland have also signed on.
Yesterday’s additions to the Schengen area is expected to boost business and tourism, allowing people to travel 4,000 kilometres from Estonia to Portugal without showing a passport or facing border controls.