Schengen hits 40: What problems lie ahead for Europe's border-free zone?

Who would have thought that a tiny town in Luxembourg would have become famous for giving the name to a visa and to the largest free travel area in the world?

That is Schengen, where forty years ago, on June 14th 1985, five European countries signed a convention to “gradually abolish” internal borders checks and allow their citizens to travel around freely. Here is the story of those events and what has happened next.

How did it start?

The Schengen Agreement was not the first free travel arrangement in Europe. The Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and the Nordic countries had already established their free movement areas. The Common Travel Area for the UK and Ireland was also in place too.

In 1984, France and the Federal Republic of Germany signed the Saarbrücken Accord aiming to gradually abolish checks at their border.

The Schengen Convention was modelled around that accord and incorporated Belgium, then West Germany, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

The signature was a low-profile but symbolic event, as it happened on a boat, the Princess Marie-Astrid, on the Moselle River, at the Luxembourg border with Germany and France.

At the time, the European Economic Community (now the EU) had 10 members. The Schengen Agreement was signed between governments, outside of the EEC legal framework.

Italy was notably excluded because its immigration policy was considered too lax. Greece was also left out, while Denmark, the UK and Ireland were not keen to open their borders.

In 1990, the Schengen Convention complemented the agreement detailing the arrangements to establish an area without internal border controls. The Treaty of Amsterdam, signed in 1997 and enforced in 1999, incorporated Schengen into the legal system of the European Union.

How many countries are part of the Schengen area?

Today, the Schengen area includes 25 of the 27 EU member states, and the four countries of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).

Romania and Bulgaria were the latest countries to join, on 1^st January 2025, and Cyprus is expected to become part of the Schengen area from 2026. Ireland is unlikely to join in the short term, as that would require to establish a border with Northern Ireland.

According to the EU Council website, the Schengen area covers over 4.5 million square kilometres with a total population of almost 450 million people. Every day around 3.5 million people cross the Schengen internal borders for work, study or visits, and almost 1.7 million people reside in one Schengen country while working in another.

What is the purpose of the Schengen Agreement?

The main purpose of the Schengen Agreement was to abolish internal border checks, one of the most tangible aspects of European integration.

At the same time, the agreement seeks to strengthen external border controls increasing cooperation between police authorities. This is done with the Schengen Information System (SIS), which allows member countries to share information on wanted or missing people and goods, the creation of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), and the European Union's agency for law enforcement cooperation (Europol).

While the visa policy remains a matter of national law, the Schengen convention also established a common visa for short term visitors.

What is a Schengen visa?

Non-EU citizens who are required a visa to visit the EU for leisure can apply for a Schengen visa, which allows to stay and travel in the border-free area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Similarly, people travelling for business can apply for a Schengen business visa.

People from visa-free countries, such as Brits, Americans, Canadians or Australians can spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the Schengen zone without a visa.

But checks remain in place at many borders...

Under the Schengen Borders Code, which sets the rules governing the Schengen area, internal border checks can be temporarily restored where there is a “serious threat to public policy or internal security”, from the organisation of a major sport event to a terrorist attack.

These checks should be a “last resort” measure, should be limited to the period “strictly necessary” to respond to the threat and not last more than 6 months. In exceptional circumstances, internal border controls can be reintroduced for a maximum of two years.

Countries reintroducing border controls have to notify the European Commission and other member states and detail the reason for their decision. There are currently reinforced border checks at internal EU borders in many countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Austria and Sweden.

The full list of countries that currently have controls in place is available here.

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Although these measures should be exceptional, there have been continuous disruptions to the free movement of people in the Schengen area. A recent reform of the rules aims to ensure that border controls are an exception, improving police cooperation and establishing targeted checks in border regions.

When controls are in place, governments should limit their impacts on border areas, on cross-border workers, and on the functioning of the single market, especially to guarantee the transit of “essential” goods as it happened during the pandemic.

What lies ahead in the future?

The next step in the development of the Schengen area will be its digitalisation.

EU countries recently agreed to introduce the possibility to apply for a visa online and replace the current visa sticker in passports with a digital visa.

A major change, expected in October after many delays, will be the introduction of the Entry/Exit System (EES), an IT infrastructure that will register non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay each time they enter and exit the Schengen Area.

This is meant to increase security and avoid stays exceeding the 90 days in a 180-day period. Travel providers and governments have long feared the delays at borders that will come with EES. Because of this EU governments have agreed to phase in the roll out of EES and allow for countries to suspend the checks if there are problems at the borders.

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After the EES, Schengen countries will also introduce the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which will require non-EU nationals who are exempt from visas to apply for a travel authorisation prior to their trip. Once applied for, the ETIAS will be valid for three years.