40 years of the Schengen Agreement: Introduction
Introduction
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Schengen Agreement and Convention
By signing the Schengen Agreement on 14 June 1985, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands agreed to gradually remove controls at their internal borders and to introduce freedom of movement for all nationals of the signatory countries, other EU Member States and some non-EU countries.
The Schengen Convention supplements the agreement and lays down the arrangements and safeguards for establishing an area without internal border controls. It was signed by the same five countries on 19 June 1990 and entered into force in 1995. The agreement and the convention, along with the related agreements and rules, together form the Schengen acquis, which was integrated into the framework of the EU in 1999, becoming EU legislation. The Treaty of Lisbon made an ‘area … without internal frontiers, in which the free movement of persons is ensured’ an EU goal.
Today 27 European countries, including 23 of the 27 Member States and the four European Free Trade Association countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – are part of the Schengen area.
Source: EUR-Lex, Glossary of Summaries (accessed 14 January 2025)
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.
Source: European Commission: Schengen Area (accessed 14 January 2025)