The border-free Schengen Area guarantees free movement to more than 425 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 Cyprus and Ireland. Bulgaria and Romania became the newest Member States to join the Schengen area as of 31 March 2024, any person crossing the internal air and sea borders will no longer be subject to checks. Nevertheless, a unanimous decision on the lifting of checks on persons at the internal land borders is still expected to be taken by the Council at a later date. Additionally, the non-EU States Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein also 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:
- the police checks do not have border control as an objective,
- are based on general police information and experience,
- are carried out in a manner clearly distinct from systematic border checks on persons at the external borders,
- are carried out on the basis of spot-checks.
The police carry out checks under the national law of the Schengen country. Depending on the exact purpose, they can, for example, include identity checks.
For more information on police checks in internal border areas see cases of the European Court of Justice C-188/10 (Melki), C-278/12 (Adil) and C-444/17 (Arib).
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 provides more information on the current reintroductions of internal border controls on the website: Temporary Reintroduction of Border Control.
