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Further integrating Europe's immigration rules, Poland announced on January 26 that it will join the European Union's Schengen Agreement, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reports.
This means that when Poland enters Schengen on October 28 2007 controls will be ended on its borders with EU countries. Poles will no longer have to present identity documents at the borders of all the "old" EU member states except for the UK and Ireland. They will also not be required to show passports when entering and leaving EU newcomers Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which will become members of the Schengen zone in 2007.
However, as part of the Schengen deal Poland will have to strengthen border controls with its neighbors Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian enclave Kaliningrad, which are not EU members.
