Of the 27 EU Member States, 22 participate in the Schengen area. Of the five EU Member States that are not part of the Schengen area, four – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania – are legally obliged to join in the future, while the other – Ireland – maintains an opt-out. The four member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, are not members of the EU, but have signed agreements related to the Schengen Agreement. Three European micro-states that are not members of the European Union, but are enclaves or half-slaves within an EU member state – Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City – are de facto part of the Schengen area. Originally, the Schengen Treaties and subsequent rules were officially independent of the EEC and its successor, the European Union (EU). In 1999, they were transposed into European Union legislation by the Treaty of Amsterdam, which provides for Schengen, codified in EU law, while providing for opt-outs for Ireland and the United Kingdom, the latter providing for opt-outs since leaving the EU. EU Member States that do not have an opt-out and have not yet joined the Schengen area are legally obliged to do so if they meet the technical requirements. Although it is linked to EU law, several non-EU countries that have signed the agreement are included in the territory. In September 2011, the Commission proposed an amendment to the CBS and called for more “EU-based governance” to assess the implementation of the Schengen rules. The Commission has proposed that Commission experts carry out announced or unannounced visits to border crossing points in order to assess the implementation of the Schengen rules. Therefore, it would be decided to re-establish border controls at EU level and not at Member State level.
[32] On 7 June 2012, Interior Ministers reached an agreement granting national governments the right to re-establish internal border controls in the event of an unforeseen emergency, without the consent of the Commission or Parliament. [33] Schengen States that share an external land border with a third country are allowed, in accordance with EU Regulation 1931/2006, to conclude or maintain bilateral agreements with neighbouring third countries for the purpose of implementing a local border transport regime. [273] These agreements define a border area that can extend on either side of the border for up to 50 kilometres (31 miles) and provide for the granting of permits for local border traffic to the inhabitants of the border area. Permits may be used to cross the border within the border area, are not stamped at the border crossing and must indicate the name and photo of the holder, as well as a clarified statement that the holder does not have the right to move outside the border area and that any abuse is punishable by criminal penalties. The November 13 attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people, sparked an urgent change of mentality in the Schengen agreements. The Schengen area has a population of nearly 420 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometers (1,664,911 square miles). [2] Around 1.7 million people cross an intra-European border every day to get to work and, in some regions, these people represent up to a third of the working population. Every year, there are a total of 1.3 billion border crossings. 57 million crossings are due to road freight transport, worth €2.8 trillion per year. [3] [4] [5] The decrease in trade costs due to Schengen varies between 0.42% and 1.59% depending on geography, trading partners and other factors. Countries outside the Schengen area also benefit. [6] Schengen states have tightened border controls with non-Schengen countries.
[7] Differences of opinion between Member States led to an impasse with regard to the abolition of border controls within the Community, but in 1985 five of the ten Member States at the time – Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany – signed an agreement on the gradual abolition of common border controls. . . .
