12.4: Schengen

The Schengen Convention allows the free movement of EU citizens across national borders without the need for visas or passport checks.

The Treaty of Rome committed member states to allow freedom of movement for citizens across internal borders. But progress was initially slow. It was only when 5 of the original 6 EU member states signed an intergovernmental accord in 1985 that progress was made.

The key developments of "Schengen" are as follows:

• An intergovernmental accord signed by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and West Germany in 1985 "on the gradual abolition of controls at the common frontier".
• The "Schengen Convention on the Application of the Agreement" was signed in 1990. The Convention comprised 142 Articles, divided into 8 titles, which covered:
• Free movement of persons and the crossing of member states' borders, for the internal market.
• Visa policy.
• Asylum policy.
• Police cooperation and mutual assistance on criminal matters.
• The policy on drugs.
• Firearms controls.
• The Schengen Information System (SIS).
• The transport and movement of goods, for the internal market.
• The Schengen Convention (or Agreement) took practical effect in 1995. It covered the original 5 signatories plus Portugal and Spain.
• The Schengen Convention ceased being intergovernmental under the Amsterdam Treaty (1997). The "Schengen acquis" was annexed to the Treaty as protocol "integrating the Schengen acquis into the framework of the EU". The Amsterdam Treaty divided the Schengen Agreement between the 1^st pillar (including illegal immigration, visas and asylum) and the 3^rd pillar (including police cooperation and mutual assistance on criminal matters).
• From 1997 other countries have joined the Schengen acquis. The dates of implementation are in brackets:
• Austria (1997), Italy (1997) and Greece (2000, effective implementation).
• In 2001 all five of the Nordic Council countries implemented Schengen. They were Denmark (with reservations), Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. Iceland and Norway have Schengen association agreement.
• The UK and Ireland (which has a passport agreement with the UK) are not signatories to the Schengen acquis.
• Switzerland has begun to work towards joining the Schengen acquis and voted to join the Schengen area in a referendum in 2004.
• The 12 new member states adopted the Schengen acquis. It was agreed in 2001 to set up a second general Schengen Information System (SIS II) as a prerequisite to the new member states participating in the Schengen acquis.
• "Schengen III" was signed in 2005 by Germany, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria and Belgium, inter-governmentally. It concerned the deepening of cross-border cooperation, in particular in the fields of the fight against terrorism, cross-border criminal activities and illegal migration. It is not part of the Schengen acquis.
• France reintroduced border controls (temporarily) in July 2005. In the wake of the UK bomb attacks, France suspended the Schengen agreement and re-imposed passport checks and controls at its borders with the rest of the EU. Suspension is allowed as a temporary measure under the Schengen acquis.
• Nine of the ten accession countries of 2004 (excluding Cyprus) joined Schengen in December 2007.

The Schengen acquis currently has 13 signatories: the EU15 minus the UK and Ireland. Norway and Iceland have association agreements.

RL, December 2007