Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-13-Speech-2-241"
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"en.20071113.29.2-241"2
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"I would like to start by joining my fellow Members in thanking and expressing my best wishes to Mr Coelho for the useful work that he has done.
Mr President, the enlargement of the Schengen area is not just another historical step in Europe’s development; more than that, it is a major acquisition for European citizens, as it gives them new rights. Mr President, we sometimes forget that there was once a time when, wherever you went in Europe, immigration officials would stamp your passport. In order to leave your country and enter it again you had to fill in an embarkation form to advise authorities where you were going and how long you would be away. On arrival you again passed through immigration control, waited in the queue and were then quizzed: why have you come, what are you going to do, how long are you staying? They almost treated you with suspicion rather than welcoming you, which annoyed many people.
On returning to your country you went through the same thing, with controls in the country of departure and controls when you returned to your own country. We should not forget as well that until a short while ago customs officials checked your baggage, asking you what you had bought, how much you had spent, as if you had some form of contraband.
Mr President, this is not 50 years ago; this is just a short time ago. Now, finally, the controls are going to end once and for all. This means that a country is in the Schengen area. When you travel within the Schengen area, you are as free as you are within your own country; you leave your country, you arrive in another, and you return without controls, without stamps, without borders, without questions. The sense of freedom brought by the freedom of movement without controls is a major acquisition that we really appreciate as one of the greatest successes of the European Union. More and more, for those of us who come from islands, Schengen unites us, builds a bridge between the periphery and the centre; for us, Schengen means a sense of liberty, it means a sense of liberation."@en1
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