"It is very good. There are no borders, so there is equality. People can communicate now and travel from one place to another without any controls," said Polish student Mikhalina Yszczak, 23, shortly after midnight.
Frontiers also fell away between the Baltic states, including Latvian-Estonian Valga-Valka where a main street had been split by a border. At the Slovak-Austrian Petrzalka/Bergen crossing, people got souvenir stamps in their passports.
"There were soldiers with machineguns here and concrete blocks which even a tank could not run over. Not even a mouse could sneak in," said pensioner Kolomam Prekop.
SOME FEARS REMAIN
The move to expand Schengen, named after a Luxembourg village where a first agreement on passport-free travel was struck in 1985, has aroused fears of increased crime or that the EU will be less secure against illegal immigration.
In Austria, the village of Deutschkreutz near Hungary hired a private security firm to patrol its streets.
Outside the EU, some in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia fear a "Fortress Europe" that will make travel more difficult, though European officials say this will not be the case.
The expansion of the Schengen zone will mean it covers 24 countries or about 400 million people. It initially covers land and sea borders but will be extended to airports next March.
The eastward enlargement of the EU in 2004 has already meant travel across borders has become much simpler.
Thousands of people from countries like Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have gone to work in Britain and Ireland, which opened their markets to workers from the new EU countries. Britain and Ireland themselves have remained outside Schengen.
Cyprus, also in the EU from 2004, has asked for a year's delay before opening its borders. Romania and Bulgaria, which became EU members this year, have yet to meet security criteria.
