Hungary in the Schengen Zone21 December 2007
New member states joined the Schengen zone after midnight on 21 December. Not only Hungary, but also all of the member states – except for Cyprus – that acceded to the EU in 2004 have now joined the spatial community of the European Union, within which territory citizens can travel freely. In Hungary’s case this means that border controls have been lifted along the stretches of the Hungarian-Slovenian, Hungarian-Austrian and Hungarian-Slovak border, whilst border, customs and finance guards will continue to operate along the Ukranian, Romanian, Serbian and Croatian boarder. The Border Guards organisation will no longer operate independently; officers will be integrated into the police force.
The European Union set up the Schengen Fund to help the new member states prepare for accession to the Schengen zone. This transitional fund granted funding of 165.8 million Euros in value from 2004 to 2006 for the implementation of technical/technological and organisational requirements guaranteeing the security of the Community along the new external borders of the extended Schengen zone. As regards developments in connection with the protection of external borders, the member states that set up the Schengen Fund defined the following targets: improving the efficiency of in depth control, increasing the data provision capacities of law enforcement bodies and improving the capacity and ability to cooperate in international criminal matters.
The National Development Agency coordinated and controlled the use of funding. The Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement spent 35 billion HUF in gross funds, the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard spent 7.3 billion HUF, the Ministry of Economy and Transport spent 3.2 billion HUF, the Central Office for Administrative and Electronic Public Services spent 4.5 billion HUF and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spent 1 billion HUF on investments. This funding made it possible to implement complex infrastructure, technical and IT developments, as well as training; moreover, conditions of in depth control were also improved.