About passport-free travelling...

Frontier-free travel for countries which joined the EU in 2004 became a reality in December.
The highly symbolic removal of remaining East–West border checks means that citizens in the ‘new’ member countries now enjoy passport-free travel across the EU, less than four years after joining. It was timed to take effect before Christmas, making travel easier over the holiday period, especially for those working elsewhere in the Union.
The new rules cover travel by land and sea. Border checks at airports for EU internal flights will be removed by the end of March 2008.
The rules do not yet apply to Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in January 2007, or to Cyprus.
The counterpart of internal freedom to travel is tough controls at the EU’s external frontiers and closer security cooperation among national authorities. Existing procedures and systems to track criminals and terrorists under the so-called Schengen Agreement have therefore been extended to the countries concerned: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia.
The area of frontier-free travel includes non-EU members Iceland and Norway. While the United Kingdom and Ireland belong or will belong to the Schengen system of police and judicial cooperation, they have opted to retain border controls for all travellers entering their territory.