The origin of the name Schengen, comes from the name of a small village in Luxembourg, on the border with Germany and France, where the Schengen Agreement and the Schengen Convention were signed in 1985 and in 1990 respectively. The Schengen area is one of the main achievements of the European Union. It started in 1985 as an intergovernmental project between five EU countries– France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – and has gradually expanded to become the largest free travel area in the world within its borders.

A couple of advantages of not having internal borders within the Schengen area are:

• Not carrying out checks in the internal borders, except for cases of specific threats.
• Carry out co-ordinated controls at their external borders, based on clearly defined criteria agreed upon between them.

On January 1, Croatia fully joined the Schengen area, as well as Bulgaria and Romania that have been recently accepted to join the Schengen agreement as of March31, 2024, although decision should be taken by the Council to establish a date for the lifting of checks at internal land borders.  Controls at the internal borders with Cyprus have not yet been lifted, and Ireland is not part of the Schengen area yet.

The number one benefit of the Schengen area is the possibility to travel freely between member countries without having to go through border controls. A great number of Europeans travel within the area with an estimated 1.25 billion journeys every year, which also greatly benefits the tourism and cultural sector. It also brings significant economic benefits to all citizens and businesses in its participating states, as the exchange of nationals and visitors continue.

Another group of visitors benefiting from the Schengen area are non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists, exchange students, or for business purposes, who can travel freely with no border controls.  This is where ETIAS is important for all visa-free country nationals visiting as tourists or for short business visits.

But how do countries apply to join the Schengen area?

Countries willing to join the Schengen area must fulfil a list of pre-conditions. They must:

• apply the common set of Schengen rules: e.g. regarding border controls, visa issuance, police cooperation and protection of personal data.
• take responsibility for controlling the external borders on behalf of other Schengen countries and for issuing uniform Schengen visas.
• efficiently cooperate with law enforcement agencies in other Schengen countries so as far as maintaining a high level of security once internal border controls have been abolished.
• connect to and use the Schengen Information System (SIS) as well as EES (Exit and Entry System) in order to eventually implement ETIAS – SEIAV.