Schengen Area (2024)

The border-free Schengen Area guarantees free movement to more than 400 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists, exchange students or for business purposes (anyone legally present in the EU). Free movement of persons enables every EU citizen to travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. Schengen underpins this freedom by enabling citizens to move around the Schengen Area without being subject to border checks.

Today, the Schengen Area encompasses most EU countries, except for Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania. However, Bulgaria and Romania are currently in the process of joining the Schengen Area and already applying the Schengen acquis to a large extent. On 1 January 2023 Croatia became the newest member state to join the Schengen area. Additionally, also the non-EU States Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have joined the Schengen Area.

Freedom and security for travellers

The Schengen provisions abolish checks at EU's internal borders, while providing a single set of rules for controls at the external borders applicable to those who enter the Schengen area for a short period of time (up to 90 days).

The Schengen area relies on common rules covering in particular the following areas:

crossing the EU external borders, including the types of visa needed,
harmonisation of the conditions of entry and of the rules on short stay visas (up to 90 days),
cross-border police cooperation (including rights of cross-border surveillance and hot pursuit),
stronger judicial cooperation through a faster extradition system and the transfer of enforcement of criminal judgments,
the Schengen Information System (SIS)and
documents needed for travelling in Europe.

Police checks and temporary border controls

Any person, irrespective of their nationality, may cross the internal borders without being subjected to border checks. However, the competent national authorities can carry out police checks at internal borders and in border areas, provided that such checks are not equivalent to border checks. The non exhaustive list of criteria allowing to assess if police checks is equivalent to border controls is set out in the Schengen Borders Code. The Code is complemented by relevant case-law of the Court of Justice. It includes the following elements:

Temporary reintroduction of border controls

If there is a serious threat to public policy or internal security, a Schengen country may exceptionally temporarily reintroduce border control at its internal borders.

If such controls are reintroduced, the Member State concerned has to inform the Council (and thus, other Schengen countries), the European Parliament and the European Commission as well as the public. The Commission is provides information on the current situation at the internal borders at its website: More information on the temporary reintroduction of border controls.

Proposal to reform the Schengen Borders Code

The proposal to amend the Schengen Borders Code, submitted by the Commission on 14 December 2021, has three main objectives:

Criteria for countries to join the Schengen Area

Joining the Schengen Area is not merely a political decision of the joining State. Countries must fulfil a list of pre-conditions:

apply the common set of Schengen rules (the so-called "Schengen acquis"), e.g. regarding controls of land, sea and air borders (airports), issuing of visas, police cooperation and protection of personal data,
take responsibility for controlling the external borders on behalf of other Schengen countries and for issuing uniform Schengen visas,
efficiently cooperate with law enforcement agencies in other Schengen countries, to maintain a high level of security, once border controls between Schengen countries are abolished,
connect to and use the Schengen Information System (SIS).

Countries wishing to join the Schengen area must undergo a series of Schengen evaluations to confirm whether they fulfil the conditions necessary for the application of the Schengen rules.

Once the Schengen Evaluation confirms the readiness of the Member State to join the area without internal border controls, a unanimous approval from all other Member States applying the Schengen acquis in full is required.

Bulgaria and Romania have successfully accomplished the Schengen evaluation process set out in their Treaties of Accession, taking all the necessary measures to ensure application of all relevant parts of the Schengen acquis. In November 2022, the Commission adopted a Communication on the full application of the Schengen acquis in Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, calling upon the Council to take the necessary decisions without any further delay, allowing these three countries to join the area without internal border controls. In December 2022 the Council adopted a decision on thefull application of the Schengen acquis in Croatia. 1 January 2023 Croatia became the 27th member of the Schengen area.

In addition, the Schengen evaluation process to assess the readiness to join the Schengen area is ongoing for Cyprus. The Schengen Information System in Cyprus will be put into operation soon and this process will be verified by a dedicated Schengen evaluation in 2023.

For more information on the Schengen Evaluation and Monitoring mechanism see Schengen evaluation and monitoring

Background: Free movement in Europe

Originally, the concept of free movement was to enable the European working population to freely travel and settle in any EU State, but it fell short of abolishing border controls within the Union.

A break-through was reached in 1985 in Schengen (a small village in Luxembourg), with the signing of the Agreement on the gradual abolition of checks at common borders, followed by the signing of the Convention implementing that Agreement in 1990. The implementation of the Schengen Agreements started in 1995, initially involving seven EU countries.

Born as an intergovernmental initiative, the developments brought about by the Schengen Agreements have now been incorporated into the body of rules governing the EU.