Poland has been a signatory to the Schengen Treaty since May 2004, but it wasn't till mid December last year that it had become a party to its Article 20, which states that citizens of a member country may cross internal EU borders without regular customs clearance or passport control. This, for obvious reasons, had been welcome by many Poles.
But Schengen is not only limited to individual tourist or visitor convenience. As a member Poland has been granted access and possibility of contributing to an information data base which increased border security, though internal Union borders physically ceased to exist.
But not everything has been rosy over the past year. One of the requirements of Schengen zone entry for Poland has been the introduction of EU visas at the eastern border. No effective solutions have been found with respect to easing the regulations for so-called small border region traffic, especially with Ukraine and Belarus. The government in Warsaw has pledged to solve the problem within the nearest months.
Click on the audio icon to listen to the report by Slawek Szefs.