The Schengen Area is a group of 29 European countries that have abolished passport checks at their common borders. It includes 25 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland; Cyprus and Ireland are EU members outside it.
The Schengen Area is a zone where people can cross borders between member countries without being checked, as if travelling within one country. It covers 29 countries: 25 of the 27 EU member states and four countries outside the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. According to the European Commission, it concerns more than 450 million EU citizens, as well as non-EU nationals living in or visiting the area legally.
It takes its name from Schengen, a border town in Luxembourg, near which five of the then ten member states of the European Economic Community signed an agreement on 14 June 1985. Checks were first lifted between seven countries on 26 March 1995. The Schengen rules were later integrated into EU law.
Removing internal checks goes together with common rules at the external border. Schengen countries apply the same conditions for entering the area, issue common short-stay visas, share information through the Schengen Information System and cooperate between police and judicial authorities. A person stopped at the external border of one Schengen country is in effect being checked for all of them.
Two EU countries are outside. Ireland has an opt-out and keeps its own visa and border policy. Cyprus takes part in Schengen cooperation, but the Council of the EU has not yet decided to lift its internal border checks; the Commission says its integration is underway.
Example
Bulgaria and Romania joined in two steps. Checks at internal air and sea borders were lifted on 31 March 2024. Checks at land borders followed on 1 January 2025, under Council Decision (EU) 2024/3212. Since then, a lorry driving from Romania to Hungary no longer stops for a border check.
Debates and limits
Schengen countries may temporarily reintroduce checks at their internal borders, but only as a measure of last resort, in case of a serious threat to public policy or internal security, and they must notify the other institutions and the public. As of 1 November 2026, seven countries had such checks in place according to the Commission’s list (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden), citing migration pressure, security threats or both. Governments that introduce such checks say they are necessary; critics, including people who cross borders daily for work, argue that repeated checks weaken one of the most concrete benefits of European integration.