Austrian Chancellor welcomes Schengen expansion: agency

(VIENNA) - The expansion of the Schengen Treaty to include large parts of eastern Europe will make Austria a safer place, Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer told the Austrian news agency APA Thursday.

In comments that addressed fears among some Austrians that the expansion of the zone would create a crime wave in their country, Gusenbauer said the changes would create "a new safety buffer" around Austria.

With nine new countries, mostly eastern European, signing up to the pact, the boundaries of the Schengen area would move hundreds of kilometres (miles) eastwards, Gusenbauer said.

"That will mean that Austria will be safer and lie much more in the heart of Europe than it has in the past," the chancellor said.

The expansion of the Schengen area was "an expansion of the zone of safety and stability in Europe."

The Schengen Treaty scraps internal border controls between participating countries.

Because Austria has borders with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, many Austrians have expressed concern that a lifting of border controls will bring a huge influx of crime.

But Gusenbauer sought to quell such fears.

"Austria has been one of the main beneficiaries of the eastward expansion of the EU," he insisted.

The Schengen expansion had been carefully prepared both in Austria and its neighbouring countries.

Furthermore, the abolition of internal barriers was "unbelievably symbolic," Gusenbauer added.

"Free borders in a free Europe: who would have dared even dream of that in 1985?" he asked.

"We must understand that Austria's political importance has also grown substantially with the expansion of Schengen," Gusenbauer said.

From Friday, the vast visa-free area will be expanded to a total 24 countries as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia also sign up.

Up until now, only 15 countries were involved: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

The treaty is named after the Luxembourg border village where the no-frontiers pact was signed in 1985.