Since the creation of the European Community (EC) in the late 1950s, European countries had long discussed achieving greater integration through the free movement of goods, services, capital, and workers on the continent. While the Community moved ahead on the free movement of the first three, efforts toward the free movement of workers, and indeed all persons, were more belabored.
The result of those efforts — the series of agreements known as Schengen — has affected border control and visa policies across European Union (EU) Member States. Schengen opened borders between participating countries, but in doing so necessitated changes to bring cooperation on common external border controls.
Historical Background
During the 1980s, EC Member States began to debate whether border checks between countries could be eliminated entirely, or whether free movement should only apply to EC nationals, leaving those visiting from outside the community subject to passport and visa checks at each national border.
Given the slow movement on the issue, a handful of Member States opted to push ahead and, independently of the European Community, create an area without internal border controls.
The Benelux countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) had already established a common passport area in 1970. After protests by truck drivers upset by border-crossing delays between France and Germany, the two countries signed a bilateral agreement in 1984 to eliminate controls along their common boundary.
On June 14, 1985, France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands met near the little town of Schengen in Luxembourg to sign the Schengen Agreement. The agreement called for the elimination of all passport and other checks between participating countries and established a single external border. However, the provisions of the agreement were not put in place until a later date. At that time, the Schengen area was viewed as a sort of laboratory, testing the creation of a common passport area before expanding Schengen to the entire EU.
