Schengen Agreement - History

History

Before 1914, it was possible to travel from Paris to Saint Petersburg without a passport. When the First World War came to an end, the practice of issuing passports and performing routine passport controls at national frontiers remained and became the norm in Europe until the implementation of the Schengen Area in 1985.

There were several exceptions. After the secession of the Irish Free State from the United Kingdom in 1922, both countries passed laws that treated the other country as part of its own territory for immigration purposes. This Common Travel Area still exists today, albeit in a much more limited fashion.

In 1944, the governments-in-exile of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (Benelux) signed an agreement to eliminate border controls between themselves; this agreement was put into force in 1948. Similarly, the Nordic Passport Union was created in 1952 to permit free travel amongst the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden and some of their associated territories. Both of these areas have largely been subsumed within the Schengen Area.

The Schengen Agreement was signed on 14 June 1985 on the river-boat Princess Marie-Astrid in the middle of the river Moselle where the territories of France, Germany and Luxembourg meet. The original signatories were Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. As Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg formed the "borderless Benelux" (s.a.), the agreement was in a way signed at the border triangle of all original signatories. It was created independently of the European Union, in part owing to the lack of consensus amongst EU members over whether or not the EU had the competence to abolish border controls, and in part because those ready to implement the idea did not wish to wait for others (back then there was no Enhanced co-operation mechanism). The Agreement initially only provided for the replacement of passport checks with visual surveillance of private vehicles, which would be able to cross borders without stopping albeit at reduced speed.

In 1990, before the Schengen Agreement had been implemented, the same five states signed a Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement. It was this Convention that created the Schengen Area through the complete abolition of border controls between Schengen states, common rules on visas, and police and judicial cooperation.

The Schengen Agreement along with its implementing Convention was implemented in 1995 only for some signatories, but just over two years later during the Amsterdam Intergovernmental Conference, all European Union member states except the United Kingdom and Ireland, and two non-member states Norway and Iceland (part of the Nordic Passport Union along with EU members Denmark, Finland, and Sweden) had signed the Schengen Agreement. It was during those negotiations, which led to Amsterdam Treaty, that the incorporation of the so-called Schengen-Acquis into the main body of European Union law was agreed along with opt-outs for Ireland and the United Kingdom, which were to remain outside of the Schengen Area.

Now that the Schengen Agreement is part of the acquis communautaire, the Agreement has, for its EU members, lost the status of a treaty, which could only be amended according to its terms; instead, its amendments are made according to that legislative procedure of the EU that covers the rules to be amended as defined in the EU treaties. Ratification by the former agreement signatory states is not required for altering or repealing some or all of the former Schengen-Acquis. Legal acts setting out the conditions for entry into the Schengen Area are now enacted by majority vote in the legislative bodies of the European Union. New EU member states do not sign the Schengen Agreement as such; instead, they are bound to implement the Schengen rules as part of the pre-existing body of EU law, which every new entrant is required to accept.

This led to the result that the Schengen States that are not EU members have few formally binding options to influence the shaping and evolution of the Schengen rules; their options are effectively reduced to agreeing, or withdrawing from the agreement. Similarly to the European Economic Area practice, consultations with the affected countries are conducted informally, prior to the adoption of particular new legislation.

In 2006 the directive on the right to move freely (2004/38/EC) was implemented, meaning that passportless travel is allowed in the entire European Union, if having a national identity card from an EU country. For some a passport is necessary anyway, since not all countries issue such cards for their citizens, and because Sweden requires a passport when travelling from that country to EU countries outside Schengen.