Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and should not just be seen in terms of 'Old
Europe' versus 'New Europe', as significant as
such differences might be. Fröhlich (2005, p. 4),
for example, identifies four potential sources of
policy conflict:
of goods and people within the Union. With
internal border controls dismantled, crossing
the external borders of the Union to enter one
member state means, in effect, legal entry into
all member states of the Union (albeit with the
internal differentiation between within and out-
side the Schengen zone). Governments in EU
capitals are therefore insisting that their fellow
EU members control their external borders
(Jones, 2003; Brimmer and Fröhlich, 2005). As
van Oudanaren (2003, p. 37) observes:
Fear of terrorism after September 11 has
heightened these concerns, as have high-profile
cases of human trafficking, illegal drug and
weapons smuggling, and spillover from
organized crime in the Newly Independent
States (NIS) and the Balkans.
Such changes to cross-border movement,
mobility and security measures can have an
impact on tourism. For example, it has been
suggested that tourists from the Arabian Gulf
have been discouraged from visiting some new
member states and candidate countries, such as
Turkey, by enlargement-related rule changes.
Enlargement Weekly
(2004) reported that Turkey
has been affected by new requirements for visas
which visitors from the Gulf Cooperation Council
countries could previously obtain on arrival,
but which are now required prior to departure.
Turkey has been pressured on this as part of the
efforts to protect European borders. In the case
of border control, it may be suggested that as a
result of accession agreements the new members
have had no real option but to adopt existing
policy settings. It is likely that in the present policy
environment in which security has such a high
priority there will be little change in the foresee-
able future. However, it seems likely that in other
cognate policy areas the accession countries
are likely to wield significant influence.
International trade negotiations will be
substantially affected by EU enlargement. For
example, with respect to the World Tourism
Organization's proposed annexe on tourism to
the General Agreement on Trade in Services
(GATS). The European Communities (EC) (S/
CSS/W/5 of 28 September 2000) was the only
World Trade Organization member to formally
submit a reaction to the proposed annexe.
Although the EC stated its support for 'the main
intentions' of the proposal, it did not explicitly
endorse the establishment of a new Tourism
the economic disparity between members
that provides pressure on regional policy
and financial redistribution;
●
the competition between old and new
members regarding the implementation of
reforms;
●
the implications of the new geographic
scope of the EU in terms of foreign and
security policy, particularly with respect to
its current and prospective European and
Asian borders; and
●
the effects of 'the structural diversity reinforc-
ing the differences between “heavyweights”
and “lightweights” in terms of population,
society and economy impeding the develop-
ment of a collective identity'.
●
After enlargement, all the problems have only
become more difficult. More members with a
veto power in certain policy fields will make a
decision more difficult to reach and strengthen
the tendency to reach minimalist decisions.
And more members mean more possibilities for
coalition building and pork barreling, further
hindering reform.
(Fröhlich, 2005, p. 5)
Although the EU does not currently define
tourism as a specific policy area, there are a
number of policy areas that will affect inter-
national tourism in the short and long term.
These include mobility, trade negotiations and
development and the environment.
One of the most significant aspects of EU
policy is that of encouraging the free mobility of
people within the EU. This ease of travel is sig-
nificant not only in terms of labour and educa-
tional mobility (see Chapter 5), but also has
implications for leisure tourism. Concerns have
been expressed in some old EU countries con-
cerning the impacts of the provision allowing for
the free movement of people within the EU in
terms of the migration of cheap labour from the
accession countries, and its potential impact on
domestic employment. From an external per-
spective, the need to tighten the external bor-
ders of the Union is an inevitable counterpart
to the removal of internal barriers to the flow
