Press release no. 152
14.12.2007
Estonian Ministry of Interior
Friday 21 December will see celebrations at the Port of Tallinn to mark Estonia’s accession to the Schengen Zone. Visiting the country to take part in the event will be a delegation of European Union and Schengen state government representatives led by Portuguese Prime Minister José Socrates. Also present will be European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and representatives Siim Kallas and Franco Frattini.
The celebratory part of the day will begin at the Port of Tallinn’s D Terminal at 3.30 pm when the Tallink Superfast ferry arrives with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and other representatives of the governments of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Opening speeches will be followed by a performance by the Estonian Border Guard orchestra and the rock group The Sun. The festivities will culminate with a fireworks display at the Admiraliteedi inlet at 4.12 pm.
A press conference about the expansion of the Schengen zone will then be held in D Terminal, starting at 4.25 pm.
The visitors will depart the Port of Tallinn at 5.00 pm.
Journalists, photographers and camera crews interested in covering the celebrations marking Estonia’s accession to the Schengen zone are asked by the Ministry of the Interior to obtain accreditation (providing their given name and surname, the name of their publication/channel and the number of their personal identification document) by no later than 4.00 pm on Tuesday 18 December through the press centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (telephone +372 637 7630, e-mail centre@mfa.ee).
Personalised name badges can then be obtained at the information session for journalists to be held in the large hall of the Ministry of the Interior at 11.00 am on Wednesday 19 December, where the details of the celebratory event will be introduced.
Further information is available by phoning +372 612 5033 or e-mailing: kristina.leer@siseministeerium.ee.
To mark the accession of nine new countries – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – to the Schengen zone, the current presiding nation of the European Union and the European Commission decided to visit four different parts of Europe on 21 and 22 December in which border controls will be disappearing. The series of events celebrating the opening of the borders will begin on 21 December at the border of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. The delegation will then travel on to Estonia to mark the expansion of the Schengen zone at the Port of Tallinn. After this, on 22 December, the group will continue to Bratislava for an event on the border between Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, before the fourth and final celebration later the same day on the border between Italy and Slovenia.
Kristina Leer
Press Officer
Phone:+372 612 5033
kristina.leer@siseministeerium.ee
