Schengen Agreement

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This article deals with the agreement and convention. For other uses, see Schengen.

The 1985 Schengen Agreement is an agreement among European states which allows for common immigration policies (including the Schengen visa) and a border system. A total of 26 countries – including all European Union states except the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, but including non-EU members Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland – have signed the agreement and 15 have implemented it so far. Border posts and checks have been removed between Schengen countries and a common 'Schengen visa' allows access to the area. However, the agreement does not cover residency or work permits for non-EU nationals.

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The agreement was originally signed on June 14, 1985, by five European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands). The agreement was signed aboard the ship Princesse Marie-Astrid on the Moselle River, near Schengen, a small town in Luxembourg on the border with France and Germany.

Its goal was to end border checkpoints and controls within the Schengen area (also known as Schengenland) and harmonise external border controls. It was originally separate from the European Union (then European Community) but has since become an EU competence, although there are some non-EU members inside the Schengen area and some EU members outside.

Additional countries have since also signed the convention, bringing the total number of signatories to twenty-six.

Membership and implementation

The agreement signed in 1985 established the steps to be taken to create the Schengen area. An additional document, called the Schengen Convention (or more fully: Convention applying the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 between the governments of the states of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders), was created which put the Schengen area into practice. This second document replaced the first and was signed by each country on the dates shown below.

For each member country there has been a delay between signing the agreement (becoming a member) and actually implementing it.

Membership

June 14, 1985 Belgium, France, West Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands
November 27, 1990 - Italy
June 25, 1992 - Portugal, Spain
November 6, 1992 - Greece
April 28, 1995 - Austria
December 19, 1996 - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
May 1, 2004 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia (not yet implemented)
October 16, 2004 - Switzerland (ratified by referendum on June 5, 2005)

Exceptions

The following territories of the membership countries are not covered by the agreement:

Heligoland of Germany
Svalbard of Norway (But Jan Mayen Island is covered by the agreement.)
Greenland and the Faroe Islands of Denmark, although formally excluded from the Schengen area, are integrated with it. (It was laid down in the association agreement with Denmark that persons travelling between the Faroe Islands and Greenland on the one hand, and the Schengen Member States on the other hand, are not subject of a border check. The traditional Free Movement of Persons acquis of the European Community is not applicable to Greenland and to the Faroe Islands.)
Livigno of Italy is a "tax haven" and maintains customs checks and random passport control.

Implementation

March 26, 1995 - Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain
1997 - Italy (October 26), Austria (December 1). Greece (December 8) implements theoretically but in practice internal border controls continued until 2000
March 26, 2000 - Greece implements the agreement fully
March 25, 2001 Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden

The eight Eastern- and Central-European countries who signed on May 1 2004 are set to implement the agreement in October 2007. Cyprus and Malta are on a different timetable. Switzerland also has yet to implement the agreement; therefore only fifteen countries are currently full members of the Schengen Agreement.

Each new country, before fully implementing the Schengen Agreement, will need to have its preparedness assessed in four areas: air borders, visas, police cooperation, and personal data protection. This evaluation process involves a questionnaire and visits of EU experts to selected institutions and workplaces of the country under assessment. The Council of the European Union is scheduled to review the results between April and September of 2007. [http://www.gzs.si/eng/news/sbw/head.asp?idc=20384

Non-signatories of note

There are some countries other than the Schengen signatories that should also be mentioned:

San Marino, although not formally part of the Schengen zone, has an open border with Italy (although some random checks are made by Carabinieri, Polizia di San Marino and Guardia di Finanza).
Regarding Monaco, which borders onto the Mediterranean Sea, the Schengen Agreement is administered as if Monaco were a part of France, with French authorities carrying out the Schengen checks at Monaco's sea port.
Liechtenstein is not yet part of the Schengen area; it has an open border with Switzerland (which has not yet implemented the agreement) but border controls are still carried out between it and its EU neighbours. As part of the European Economic Area it applies the Traditional Free Movement of Persons acquis of the European Community; Liechtenstein intends to adhere to the Schengen area and it applied to join in the autumn of 2005. The EU Council of Ministers gave their assent to the start of the negotiations in late February 2006.
The Vatican City has expressed a desire to join Schengen. It already has an open border with Italy, but enforcing the Schengen Agreement will allow for closer cooperation in information sharing and similar activities covered by the Schengen Information System.^*
Andorra is not integrated into the Schengen zone and border controls remain.
See UK and Ireland, the only two EU members not to join the Schengen Agreement.

Agreement provisions

Before Schengen, citizens of western European countries could travel to neighbouring countries by showing their national ID card or passport at the border. Nationals of some other countries required separate visas for every country in Europe they wished to visit. A vast network of border posts existed around the continent, disrupting traffic, trade and causing delays and costs to both businesses and visitors.

For non-EU country citizens who wish to visit Europe as tourists, they are required to get only the common Schengen Visa from the Embassy/Consulate of any of the Schengen countries. After this, they may visit any or all of the Schengen countries as tourists without hinderance. They are not required to get separate visas for all the (Schengen) European countries they wish to visit. This applies, of course, only for visit to those countries who have implemented the Schengen agreement.

The Schengen Agreement removed border checks between participating countries. The Schengen Agreement also means that participating countries will co-ordinate their external controls. This is necessary since a person acceptable to one country but not to another can still enter both, if one admits him. For example, immigration policy must be agreed upon as immigrants can enter through the most relaxed border and make their way to less hospitable countries once within Schengenland unless entry criteria are homogeneous.

A country is permitted by the article 2.2 of the agreement to reinstate border controls for a short period if it is deemed in the interest of national security. This occurred in Portugal during the 2004 European Football Championship and in France for the ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day. It was used again by France shortly after the London bombings in July of 2005. (This was despite the fact that the UK is not part of Schengen and the France-UK border controls were always in place. One of the bombers managed to pass unimpeded through France, only to be arrested in Rome.) Finland briefly reinstated border controls during the 2005 World Championships in Athletics that took place in Helsinki Olympic Stadium during August 2005, and Germany did the same in June 2006 during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

The Schengen Agreement also includes consent to share information about people, via the Schengen Information System. This means that a potentially undesirable person cannot 'disappear' simply by moving from one participant country to another as each country will know the same about the person's background.

Previously, a criminal with police in hot pursuit would be safe once they managed to cross the border, but under the agreements of the Schengen Agreement police from one nation can cross national borders to chase their target.

The Schengen Agreement intends to harmonise the laws and regulations of several policy areas, in order to minimise the extent to which criminals can take advantage of the relaxation of controls. For example, the Dutch policy on drugs differs from the French policy, and a person could buy drugs in the Netherlands and transport them to France to sell on the black market. This is much easier when there are no border controls between the two countries (via Belgium). As a result of this particular difference in policy France insisted on maintaining border controls on people entering France from the Benelux countries for some time after the agreement was implemented.

Schengen and the European Union

All Schengen Agreement signatories except Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are European Union members. Two EU members (the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) have opted not to sign the Schengen Agreement (their reasons are outlined below).

The main reason that the non-EU states of Iceland and Norway joined was to preserve the open borders agreement between the Nordic countries that has been in effect since 1952.

The Schengen Agreement was created independently of the European Union in part due to the lack of consensus amongst EU members, and in part because those ready to implement the idea did not wish to wait for others who were not ready.

However, the Treaty of Amsterdam incorporated the developments brought about by the Schengen agreement into the European Union framework, effectively making the Schengen Agreement part of the EU. Amongst other things the Council of the European Union took the place of the Executive Committee which had been created under the Schengen agreement. Future applicants to the European Union must fulfil the Schengen Agreement criteria regarding their external border policies in order to be accepted into the EU. The existing signatories who are not EU members have less opportunity to participate in shaping the evolution of the Schengen Agreement as a result of the Treaty of Amsterdam. Their options are effectively reduced to agreeing with whatever is presented before them or withdrawing from the Agreement.

Despite the Schengen Agreement having been incorporated into the EU, it has not been voted upon by any EU institution. Because of this, there are some concerns regarding the democratic accountability of the agreement. Greece, prior to accepting and signing the agreement, raised questions about the legality of the Schengen Information System, and suggested that it represented a violation of privacy.

Additionally, the Schengen III Agreement was signed on 27 May, 2005 by seven countries (Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, and Belgium) at Prüm, Germany. This agreement, based on the principle of availability which began to be discussed after the Madrid bomb attack on 11 March, 2004, could enable them to exchange all data regarding DNA, fingerprint data of concerned persons and to cooperate against terrorism. Finland has also indicated an interest in joining. ^*

Customs control

Between most of the internal borders of the Schengen countries, border controls have completely been removed. The border controls usually simply consisted of passport checks at these borders. The Schengen Agreement does not forbid customs control so long as there is no passport check, and checks are made randomly.

Some countries, including Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland, still maintain customs control at their borders. Sweden, Norway and Finland do not operate border controls between each other but do monitor their borders with some other countries. Their main reasons for having customs control are to control the smuggling of drugs and alcohol.

For a while Swedish and Norwegian customs asked every car driver the reason for their trip and checked everyone acting suspiciously. This practise is not employed anymore since it contravened the rule that checks must be random.

UK and Ireland

The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are the only two EU members not to have signed the Schengen Agreement, although they have accepted some of its provisions. The UK wishes to maintain its own borders and Ireland has a free movement arrangement with the UK (called the Common Travel Area) similar to the Schengen Agreement, so in order to maintain this it can only sign the Schengen Agreement if the UK does. BBC News Glossary EU jargon, Thursday, 15 April, 2004, accessed 3rd June 2006

Because the UK does not issue ID cards, there is no police power to stop and demand ID, unlike on the continent. Introducing this requirement was expected to cause civil liberties issues, and therefore it was decided to keep border controls in place.

Having neither border controls nor the right to demand ID would make it possible for illegal immigrants and criminals to hide and to move through the EU undetected.

Nevertheless the Schengen country Norway does not issue ID-cards at all either, and Finland, France, Iceland, Sweden and Austria don't have compulsory ID-cards to date. The Netherlands also did not have compulsory ID cards at the time they joined Schengen, but this was changed on January 1, 2005. (See List of identity card policies by country for more information on this.)

Non-EU nationals living in the UK and Ireland would however benefit from the UK and Ireland joining the Schengen area, as they currently need to obtain separate UK, Irish and Schengen visas in order to travel within the EU. On May 29, 2000 the UK and Ireland began participating in the Schengen Information System.

Gaining entry

Member States of the Schengen area have elaborated uniform rules as to the type of visas which may be issued for a short-term stay, not exceeding three months, on the territory of one, several or all of those States.

The uniform visa enables aliens that are subject to the visa requirement to present themselves at the external border of the Member State which issued the visa or that of another Member State and request transit or stay, depending on the type of visa. The uniform visa is granted in the form of a sticker affixed by a Member State onto a passport, travel document or another valid document which entitles the holder to cross the border.

In other words, mere possession of a uniform visa does not confer automatic right of entry. It will only be granted if the other transit or entry conditions laid down by the Schengen Agreement have been met, notably the means of subsistence that aliens must have at their disposal, as well as the purpose and the conditions of the stay.

To obtain a Schengen visa the traveller must take the following steps:

He or she must first identify the Schengen country of his or her main destination. This element will determine the State responsible for deciding on the Schengen visa application and therefore the embassy or the consulate where he or she will have lodge the application. If his or her intention is to visit several Schengen countries during the trip, he or she will have to file a visa application at the embassy of the country where he or she will make his first entry in Schengen area. If the Schengen State of the main destination or first entry does not have a diplomatic mission or consular post in his or her country, he or she will have to contact the embassy or the consulate of another Schengen country, normally located in his country, which represents, for the purpose of issuing Schengen visas, the country of his or her principal destination or first entry.
He or she must then present the Schengen visa application to the responsible embassy or consulate. A harmonised form is to be submitted, together with a valid passport and, if necessary, with the documents supporting the purpose and conditions of the stay in the Schengen area (aim of the visit, duration of the stay, lodging). He or she will also have to prove means of subsistence, i.e. the funds that he or she has to cover: on the one hand, the expenses of the stay taking into account its duration and the place where he or she will reside and, on the other hand, the return in his or her home country. Bear in mind that certain embassies or consulates sometimes call the applicant to appear in person in order to explain verbally the reasons for the visa application.
The traveller must finally have a travel insurance which covers, for a minimum of € 30 000, any expenses in connection with repatriation for sanitary reasons or with emergency medical treatment occurred during his stay. The proof of the travel insurance must in principle be provided at the end of the procedure, i.e. when a positive decision has already been made as for the granting of the Schengen visa.

For citizens of countries not party to the Schengen Agreement, restrictions exist that govern the length of one's stay within the Schengen area. The general rule stipulates a maximum 90-day stay within a 180-day period beginning from the first day of entry. Provided a multiple-entry visa has been granted, one may leave and return a number of times within the 180-day period but the combined stay within the region must total no more than 90 days.

Notes and References

External links

Schengen Countries (updated april 2006)
Switzerland joins Schengen BBC News article

European Union law | European Union treaties | Borders | International transportation

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