At least twice a month, Jerzy Rugogowski loads up a trailer with apples and makes the short journey eastward towards Terespol, one of Poland's border crossings with Belarus. After the usual delays and controls by border guards from both countries, the 46-year-old Polish fruit grower travels to the nearest town to sell his apples. The profits are small. If he is not paid in cash, he is paid in kind. "Dollars. Zlotys. Onions. Whatever," says Mr. Rugogowski. "Vegetables are cheaper in Belarus than Poland. I sell them back home. I don't lose."

Creating New Walls

But if European Union interior ministers have their way, there could be many losers after enlargement when Poland, Hungary and other east European countries join, possibly by 2004. "The one thing I really worry about with enlargement is that a new Iron Curtain will be drawn along the eastern borders of Poland and Hungary," says Inna Pidluska, vice-president of the Kiev-based Centre for Independent Political Research. But interior ministers want hard borders between the new member states and their eastern neighbors of Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova - countries that would become the EU's new neighbors if Poland, Hungary, and eventually Romania are admitted to the Union. By hard, they mean strict controls on movement and little flexibility for local cross-border trade.

For the applicant states, joining the EU entails reintroducing visa requirements for their eastern, non-candidate neighbors as well as stepping up border controls. EU and interior ministry officials say this is one of the prices to pay if candidate countries want to join Schengen, the security system that has scrapped internal border controls among most EU countries. They also insist that hard borders are essential for stopping drug and human trafficking as well as illegal immigration, for which Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova are notorious. And they are quick to argue that the public in member states - most of whom have not yet started to think seriously about enlargement - will be put off the entire venture if the new borders of a bigger Union are not tight.

Such views have not convinced the critics of hard borders. "Interior ministers always tend to exaggerate," says Janos Vandor, political science professor at the Budapest Business School. "Rarely are the big fish - be they smugglers, drug or human traffickers - caught on these borders. They know how to work the system. They have the money and means to manipulate the system. Somehow they always manage to get through." Giuliano Amato, former prime minister of Italy and now engaged in a study on the EU's external borders after enlargement, is much more blunt. "If you think you can fight crime by policing the borders, that's ridiculous. What you need is judicial and police co-operation among member states and candidate countries so as to identify criminals before they reach the borders." Mr. Amato, a passionate defender of a bigger and more united Europe, believes an important motivation of Schengen was always to try and stop uncontrolled immigration. "Schengen gives freedom for the insiders but it is a wall against outsiders. Is this what the new Europe is about? Creating new walls, in reality and in our heads?"

Conflicting Loyalties

Building new walls in Europe is an idea abhorred by officials in the candidate countries. But they have found themselves caught by conflicting loyalties. On the one hand, they are desperate to meet the requirements of Schengen. In the eyes of the people, the end of border controls with western Europe is the most visible symbol of them "returning to Europe."

On the other hand, they are just as anxious to maintain good contacts with their eastern neighbors, which only blossomed once the cold war ended in 1989. "We are torn between establishing a hard border to our east, wanting to convince the EU that we will be ready to join Schengen as soon as possible, once we enter the EU," says Piotr Stachanczyk, Polish deputy interior minister. "But there is also some pressure to maintain a soft border for trade, contracts and stability, or, at least, as flexible or user-friendly a border as possible."

Before 1989, some of the borders between eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, such as Ukraine and Belarus, were almost hermetically sealed. Travel was restricted. Cultural exchanges were limited and cross-border trade was almost non-existent.

Since the mid-1990s, there had been an extraordinary opening of borders. Problems of crime - particularly drug and human trafficking - have plagued the region but open borders have also created opportunities. Over the past 10 years, Poland and the Czech Republic have registered 250m border crossings each year and Hungary more than 100m. Most of the visitors come from Ukraine, Belarus and Romania. Some come to visit but many to work as cleaners, construction site workers and seasonal farm laborers. Poland now has 500,000 migrant workers. Earnings for migrant workers in Warsaw, Budapest or Prague are very low, even by central European standards. But, as Dariusz Stola, a sociologist at Warsaw University's Institute of Political Studies, points out: "These earnings are several times higher than earnings at home and account for a major part of their family income." If these borders are once again sealed, Mr. Stola believes the expected decline in immigration with the enlargement of the Schengen zone "will be most painful for those groups that have become dependent upon earnings in central Europe. That may have far-reaching consequences, including an impact on the fragile political stability in these countries."

There is also the question of what will happen to ethnic minorities if borders are again sealed. Poland and Hungary have sizable ethnic minorities living in Belarus, Ukraine and Romania. Hungary recently passed legislation granting its minorities an automatic right to social welfare and education benefits if they choose to travel or live in Hungary. Poland is considering ways to give ethnic Poles abroad privileges to protect them against risks of political instability in Belarus or Ukraine.

A Fortress Europe

The dangers of a new Iron Curtain are slowly permeating political thinking in the EU. Antonio Vitorino, EU commissioner for justice and home affairs, believes that even if a visa regime is introduced between candidate and non-candidate countries, it should not lead to a Fortress Europe. He suggests introducing a multi-visa regime for certain categories - academics, those involved in business and relatives of the new EU citizens. Mr. Vitorino has mooted the idea of setting up a European border guard unit to promote co-operation between member states and candidate countries. He insists that the borders of the eastern European countries can become more efficient and less corrupt with better training of guards, computerization and simple improvements such as waiting rooms and border-crossers.

The EU is helping to modernize some of Poland's border crossings with Belarus and is providing 3bn ($2.6bn) of technical assistance over six years to non-candidate countries. The foreign ministries of Poland and Hungary have also begun investing in new consulates in the border regions and the large cities of Belarus, Ukraine and Romania, making it easier to obtain visas. "My fears of a new Iron Curtain could be dispelled if I knew the visa regime would become user friendly, that it would become more efficient, that travel would be even easier as a result," says Ms Pidluska from the Centre for Independent Political Research. "Then I might be assured that enlargement would not isolate us."