Czechs threaten to start checks at Slovak border

...

The Czech Republic may erect a guarded border with Slovakia, ending free travel inside former Czechoslovakia, unless Bratislava tightens controls on its frontier with Ukraine, a Czech official said on Tuesday.

The two European Union newcomers want to enter the EU's borderless Schengen area at the end of 2007, but before Slovakia can join it must upgrade controls on the border with non-EU member Ukraine, Czech ambassador to the EU Jan Kohout said.

If Bratislava fails the Schengen control test, the Czech Republic would not be admitted to the EU zone of passport-free travel unless it imposed checks at the Slovak border.

"In the situation that they (Slovakia) are not ready to assume their obligation, we are ready to build a Schengen border between the Czech Republic and Slovakia," Kohout told reporters.

He said he was confident Slovakia would deal with any problems on its Ukrainian border before a tentative deadline of April-May to qualify for the Schengen area from Dec. 1, 2007.

The agreement groups 13 old EU member states plus Norway and Iceland but not Britain and Ireland, which chose to keep border controls. It has no internal border posts or checks.

Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in a so-called "Velvet Divorce" in 1993, four years after the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe. The two countries have virtually no border between them.

Because of delays in setting up a new police database on stolen vehicles and people searched, the expansion of the Schengen area to the 10 countries that joined in 2004 was delayed.

First planned for October next year, it was set to drag on until late 2008 or early 2009. But pressure from the newcomers, who complained of being treated as second-class citizens, forced ministers to agree to let all but Cyprus access the current database, allowing an earlier lifting of border controls.

To join the zone, the new EU states will need to prove their borders with third countries cannot become gateways for illegal migration and smuggling. The 10 newcomers are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. ((Editing by Elizabeth Piper; Brussels newsroom; tel +322 287 6830, fax +322 230 5573, e-mail: marcin.grajewski@reuters.com))

Keywords: CZECH SLOVAK/BORDER

[BRUSSELS/Reuters/Finance.cz]