Its expansion from 15 members to 25 should create pressure for making the EU what it always should have been--a vast free-trade area with open borders and, for most members, a common currency.

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Were the Armenian-Azerbaijani and the Armenian-Turkish borders to open, goods would flood freely from east to west, lowering prices and increasing supply.

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Such assertions are unlikely to persuade a well-informed skeptic of open borders, although the studies seem sound.

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It also called for neighbouring Iran to open its borders and allow Afghan refugees fleeing the fighting to cross into its territory -- adding to the 2.3 million already seeking refuge.

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"How we open up borders for the free flow of people, or workers, as well as goods - that is being discussed as well as infrastructure, " he said.

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Mercosur borders are more open in theory than fact: getting goods across can still be a time-consuming (and, at times, palm-greasing) affair.

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Frontex, a Warsaw-based agency created in 2004 to manage the EU's external borders, will open a pilot office in the Greek port of Piraeus in October.

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And it is one of the reasons that Poland - assuming it makes into the EU - will have to wait a few years before it will be trusted enough to have fully open borders with the other member countries to the west.

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