Development

Why is the Schengen Area a milestone in European integration?

Within the Schengen Area, there are no longer any regular border controls, and people can move freely between its member states – something that millions of people do every day. Europeans make an estimated 1.25 billion journeys within the Schengen Area each year, mainly for tourism, culture or leisure. Many Europeans under the age of 30 only know Europe as a continent without internal borders:

For our generation, border controls in Europe are a memory of the past – like black and white television or telephone boxes.

Young European Federalists in a letter to President of the European Council, 2016

The Schengen Area is the world's largest travel area without regular internal border controls. Only when public policy or national security is threatened do the Regulations allow for temporary controls, which, however, the states currently interpret very broadly (see the chapter on Challenges).

The Schengen Agreement is nevertheless a milestone in the process of European integration. It has led to the gradual realisation of the free movement of people, one of the four fundamental freedoms of the European single market. While citizens of the European Union are free to travel to any of the Member States and are allowed to live, study and work there permanently, companies enjoy freedom of establishment.

Martina Kneip, Director of the European Museum in Schengen, on the value of Schengen:

The agreement on the free movement of people within the single market has added a human dimension to the European Union's integration process, which has so far been largely economic. It has a direct impact on the lives of citizens. In surveys, citizens consistently rated it as one of the greatest achievements of European integration, although there is increasing concern about its indirect repercussions for international crime and irregular immigration.

What impact does Schengen have on the other internal freedoms and cooperation?

The free movement of people is also the foundation for the implementation of the other freedoms in the European Single Market: the free movement of goods, services and capital. It makes an integrated economic area possible, opens up the labour market and promotes the exchange of skills, goods, services and capital.

The Schengen Agreement also emphasises the importance of closer cooperation between police and judicial authorities in the member states.

In 1995, a common, comprehensive search and information system, the Schengen Information System, was developed for this purpose. It includes shared databases on: third-country nationals who have been refused entry; wanted people; arrests; and residence checks. Since 2023, it has also been able to store fingerprints and photos of people.

The compensatory measures for the free movement of people agreed by the Schengen States back in 1990 also include the expansion of police cooperation. For example, the right to cross-border surveillance and prosecution of criminals, without having to obtain the consent of the country concerned beforehand.

Moreover, cooperation between national legal systems is strengthened. It is now easier to extradite criminals and to enforce criminal sentences internationally. Cooperation is supported by European agencies such as the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust).

The Schengen Agreement has led to a key distinction between member states, namely those that have only internal borders (such as Germany) and those that have both internal and external borders (such as Italy).

In the Schengen Area, there is an unprecedented degree of interaction and interdependence between these states: the abolition of border controls has turned the borders of the peripheral member states of the Schengen Area into the borders of the entire Union. The external border states are confronted with expectations of border security and protection from the states at the centre of Europe and, in turn, ask for support when faced with particular challenges in border protection.

How are internal movement and external control linked in the Schengen System?

From the very beginning, the free movement of people in the Schengen Area has been accompanied by the strengthening of controls at the external borders.

In order to avoid disparities in border security, the European Commission and the member states - especially those in the centre of Europe with internal borders - were and are interested in standardising and strengthening the controls on external borders. The Schengen Borders Code formulates binding requirements for the protection and control of the external borders of the Schengen states, and an integrated border management system has been established, with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, as the central actor.

Frontex is an agency set up in 2004 to assist member states in border management. It has extensive powers in this field. Its tasks include individual operations at external borders, organisation of joint returns, monitoring of borders and analysis of migratory movements. Its annual budget has increased from €6 million in 2005 to €922 million in 2024.

The Agency's human and technical resources have also been continuously reinforced. Since the expansion of its mandate in 2019, it has had its own EU standing corps of border guards who carry out border control tasks, have executive powers at the EU's external borders, and are uniformed and armed. Frontex is repeatedly and strongly criticised by parts of the European public as a symbol of a Europe that seals itself off and that criminalises flight and migration. It is repeatedly accused of human rights violations.

A further contribution to the attempt to secure the external borders is seen in the extensive use of technology and the automation of control and monitoring processes, for example through IT-supported surveillance technologies, biometric data checks or e-gates. EUROSUR, the border surveillance system operated by Frontex, has been active since 2014. It is based on various satellite services. EURODAC is a biometric Europe-wide database that contains the fingerprints of all asylum seekers and anyone caught irregularly crossing an external border. It is to store further data in the future, such as facial images.

How can people migrate to the Schengen Area?

In political debate, the functioning of the Schengen System is also closely linked to the treatment of asylum seekers in Europe. The European Union does not have a common asylum procedure and there are very few ways to enter the EU legally to apply for asylum. A number of migrants choose to make irregular land or sea crossings, which often endanger their lives. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), more than 31,500 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014.

In this video, two migrants talk about their motives and experiences when entering Europe:

Ways of entering Europe legally to claim asylum include humanitarian admission programmes, humanitarian visas and resettlement programmes. However, these are very limited and take a lot of time.

Many people outside Europe are familiar with the term 'Schengen visa'. With the Schengen Agreement, the visa policies of the participating countries were harmonised and a uniform Schengen visa was introduced. These visas allow entry into a member country and a short stay throughout the Schengen Area. To obtain a visa, one must demonstrate, among other things, sufficient financial resources, the purpose of the trip, and the intention to return immediately at the end of the visa. Schengen visas are valid for business, visitor or tourist purposes.

In 2023, more than 10.3 million applications for short-stay visas were submitted, and almost 8.5 million visas were issued. The majority of these applications came from China, Turkey, India, Morocco and Russia.

How is the European Union trying to counter irregular migration?

The European Union identifies irregular migration as a major threat at its external borders. It seeks to counter this by, among other things, relocating border controls outside the European area, thus creating a kind of buffer zone. To this end, Frontex, the EU and individual member states conclude agreements with third countries. Governments of states in the European Union's immediate and wider neighbourhood are tasked with preventing irregular migration to Europe and controlling their borders according to European standards (see information at the bottom).

For example, the European Union supports the development of border posts, the introduction of technology in border control facilities and identity checks, and the establishment of detention centres in third countries. Readmission agreements, i.e. treaties on the return or admission of people obliged to leave Europe, are also an important political tool in this field. In return, the agreements stipulate that third countries receive visa facilitation, import relief and financial compensation for their cooperation and assistance in border protection. However, they also include sanctions (see the chapter on Impact).

An example to illustrate the comprehensive bilateral agreements with third countries is Italy's cooperation with Libya. Italy concluded a series of comprehensive agreements with Libya in the early 2000s, culminating in the Treaty on Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation signed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2008. This included very extensive cooperation to combat irregular migration.

When Gaddafi's regime collapsed in 2011, the resulting instability of the country became a central problem for Italian migration policy, which was followed by the laborious reconstruction of the agreements with Libya. In 2023, the Italian and Libyan governments signed another agreement to prevent irregular migration. This agreement includes, among other things, the expansion of the Libyan coast guard and the repatriation of migrants to Libya.

The European Union and Frontex cooperate with the direct outer European periphery, but also with other third countries in the form of operational cooperation (e.g., information exchange, training, and joint operations such as in the Africa Frontex Intelligence Community), in working arrangements (e.g., with Belarus, Morocco, or Turkey), in technical assistance projects (e.g., in North Africa), or within the framework of the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility.

As 'Team Europe', Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed a memorandum with Tunisian President Kais Saied in Tunis in 2023 to strengthen cooperation on migration, including financial support for border management and economic development.

Another prominent example is the 2016 EU-Turkey Statement, in which the EU and Turkey agreed to curb irregular migration to Europe in exchange for financial aid, a lifting of the visa requirement for Turkish nationals in the Schengen Area and a resumption of Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union.

Many observers, NGOs and political actors have criticised the fact that third countries do not sufficiently respect human rights when implementing the agreements.

An international journalistic investigation (including Le Monde and Der Spiegel) documented how tens of thousands of migrants on their way to Europe were picked up by EU-funded security forces in Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania and illegally abandoned in the middle of the desert. EU officials insist that partners must respect human rights when implementing the agreements. However, human rights violations, such as illegal pushbacks, have been repeatedly documented against Greek, Spanish and Frontex border guards.