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- <text id=90TT1702>
- <title>
- July 02, 1990: World Notes:The Community
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 02, 1990 Nelson Mandela:A Hero In America
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 41
- World Notes
- THE COMMUNITY
- Welcome to Schengenland
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> The dream of a border-free Europe took a step toward reality
- last week. Aboard a cruiser sailing down the Moselle River past
- the village of Schengen, representatives of France, West
- Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed an
- agreement to abolish border checks for travelers and their
- luggage. The accord will go into effect in 1992. When it does,
- the internal frontiers shared by the five countries, including
- a newly unified Germany, will be partly dissolved, creating a
- 373,766-sq.-mi. passport-free territory informally dubbed
- Schengenland.
- </p>
- <p> The agreement is regarded as an important preliminary to
- full integration of the twelve-member European Community,
- scheduled for Jan. 1, 1993. Within the new five-nation zone,
- passport controls for citizens will be lifted, police will
- share information, and extradition and political-asylum
- measures will be harmonized. But to combat a possible increase
- in illicit drug trafficking, terrorist activities and illegal
- immigration, controls on the external borders of Schengenland
- will be tightened.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-