Context

• Romania and Bulgaria scrapped land border controls to become full members of the European Union's Schengen free-travel area. Both countries became full members on January 1, 2025.

About Schengen Zone

• Created in 1985
• Agreement took effect in 1995
• Members: 25 European Union Members and 4 Union Members Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
• Croatia, a EU member since 2013, joined Schengen in 2023.
• Zone is known after Schengen, tiny Luxembourg village bordering France and Germany
• Schengen provisions abolish checks at the EU’s internal borders while providing a single set of rules for controls at the external borders applicable to those who enter the Schengen area for up to 90 days.

Members of Schengen Zone

• Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Benefits of Schengen:

• Schengen's border-free regime symbolises European values of unity and solidarity.
• It is an area without internal borders, an area within which citizens and many non-EU nationals staying legally in the EU can freely circulate without being subjected to border checks.
• If there is a serious threat to public policy or internal security, a Schengen country may exceptionally temporarily reintroduce border control at its internal borders.

European Union

• Number of Members: 27 member states
• Established by the Maastricht Treaty (1993)
• Incorporated as an international legal juridical person by the Treaty of Lisbon (2009)