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.
Related documents
- Communication on the full application of the Schengen acquis in Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia
- Report of the third voluntary fact-finding mission to Bulgaria – latest developments in the application of the Schengen acquis
- Report of the voluntary based fact-finding mission to Romania and Bulgaria on the application of the Schengen acquis and its development since 2011
- Report of the complementary voluntary fact-finding mission to Romania and Bulgaria on the application of the Schengen acquis and its developments since 2011
- Notifications under Article 19 of Regulation (EC) No 1931/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 laying down rules on local border traffic at the external land borders of the Member States and amending the provisions of the Schengen Convention List of notifications of bilateral agreements under Article 19 of Local Border Traffic Regulation
- Notifications under Article 14 (5) of Regulation (EC) No 2016/399 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 09 March 2016 on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) (codification). Statistics on the number of persons refused entry at the external borders of EU States
- Notifications under Article 39 of Regulation (EC) No 2016/399 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 09 March 2016 on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) (codification)
- List of notifications under Article 39 (Schengen Borders Code) (codification)
- List of border crossing points (consolidated version)
- List of residence permits (consolidated version)
- Reference amounts for crossings of the EU’s external borders (overview and consolidated version)
- List of national services responsible for border control (consolidated version)
- Model cards issued by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Member States to accredited members of diplomatic missions and consular representations and members of their family (consolidated version part 1 and part 2)
- List of specimen of residence permits (consolidated version part 1 and 2)
- Notifications under Article 42 of Regulation (EC) No 2016/399 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 09 March 2016 on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) (codification)
- Lists of notifications under Article 42 (Schengen Borders Code) (codification)
- Commission Implementing Decision establishing the report of 2019 – 2020 thematic evaluation of Member States` national strategies for integrated border management and Annex 1
- Commission report on the functioning of the Schengen evaluation and monitoring mechanism, First multi-annual evaluation programme (2015-2019)
- Commission report (2015) 675 on the functioning of the Schengen area
- Commission report (2013) 326 on the functioning of the Schengen area
- Commission report (2012) 230 on the functioning of the Schengen area
- Commission report COM (2010) 554 on internal borders
