European Union newcomer Poland is to enter the bloc's unified Schengen border regime on 28 October 2007, ending controls on the western frontier with Germany and with southern EU neighbours, the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Wednesday.
As of October 28, Poles will no longer be subjected to passport and national identity document checks at the border with 13 EU members except for Britain and Ireland, the report said.
Document-free travel will also be available to Poles entering new EU members Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who are also due to join the Schengen zone in 2007.
But Gazeta notes Poland must work hard to establish the Schengen- required SIS II framework to realise the October 2007 entry date and reinforce eastern border controls with non-EU members including the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, Belarus and Ukraine.
EU officials are expected to review the country's adjustment process in 2006, the report said.
The largest of 10 mostly former communist countries to have joined the EU last May, Poland is expected to adopt the bloc's common currency in 2009-2010.
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