Explore the Easy Travel Benefits of the Schengen Area: Research Paper

Introduction

The Schengen Area is a particular zone in Europe that enables its citizens to travel freely within its member states. The citizens of the Schengen region do not need to acquire visas to travel within the zone. They do not also need to make any declaration of their intentions for moving from one member country to another. The legitimate members of the Schengen Area are countries within Schengen that officially abolished all passports and other border regulations for mutual ownership. The area has a standard visa policy for international travelers since it functions as a single jurisdiction. It means that the borders of the member countries do not have barriers and checkpoints. The Schengen Area is situated on an area covering 4, 312, 099 square kilometers, with a population of more than 420 million people. However, members of the regions that are from outside Europe do not get included in the total population. The area experiences over ten million travels across borders of its member countries per year since most of its citizens commute to work every day. Some enjoy free traveling using air and others using road transport.

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Current Schengen Area Members

Schengen Area is a region in Europe with a territory of 26 countries. Schengen Area consists of 22 nations that are members of the European Union, and the other four, which are members of the European Free Trade Association, are Lichtenstein Switzerland, Iceland, and Norway. The Schengen Area has a unifying principle that forms the European Union, although not all members of the European Union abide by its laws and regulations. Therefore countries that allow other member countries to pass freely without immigration issues comprise Austria, Hungary, Norway, Belgium, Iceland, Poland, Germany, Malta, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden, Greece, and the Netherlands (Alkopher & Blanc, 2017). However, the few European nations that lack the Schengen Area membership make traveling difficult since they do not recognize the Schengen visa. For instance, Ireland is not a Schengen Area member, but it is a member of the European Union. Hence, they have checkpoints for the people who are traveling into their country. On the other hand, countries like Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia allow European Union citizens to move within their borders, although they are not yet members of the Schengen Zone freely.

European Members with Opt-Outs

During the signing of the Schengen Agreement, before enlargement in 2004, the Republic of Ireland refused to sign, but it was a member of the European Union (Balfour & Stratulat, 2012). Therefore, Ireland and the UK made a deal and formed free-visa travel for their citizens and Britain. Ireland decided to reestablish the border checks with Britain after refusing to sign the Schengen Agreement since both countries believed that it was easier to maintain borders of the island nation.

Territories of Schengen States outside the Zone

The countries that are located outside the European Continent, but are part of the Schengen Area comprise the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores. However, some European Union members located outside Europe get exempted from the Schengen Territories; they include Germany, Malta, Switzerland, and French Guiana (Alkopher & Blanc, 2017). Other Dutch and Danish territories are neither part of the European Union nor the Schengen region.

Border Policies of the Schengen Area

The characteristics of Schengen Area border policies comprise:

• The member countries of the Schengen Zone should not execute internal border checks for its members but must have a joint agreement on the criteria of carrying out the border checks on their external borders.
• Conversely, such travelers must produce a government document showing that they are from a specific member country.
• The border checks are only supposed to get carried out to eliminate threats to public security but not denying people movement.
• The member countries are to increase police operations within the Schengen Area through cross-border surveillance and pursuit.
• The Schengen Area should have standard rules for dealing with non-member countries either within the zone or outside.

How to Join the Schengen Area and How Schengen Impacts European Union

Countries wishing to join the Schengen Zone must meet the following criteria as established by the Council Regulation (EU) No 1053/2013. Thus, the four significant conditions include:

• The willing country must be ready to work on behalf of other Schengen states in controlling external borders issued with Schengen visas.
• The candidate country must show a willingness to work efficiently with other members of the Schengen Area and maintain peace.
• The country that is applying to join the zone must be willing to abide by the Schengen rules, border controls, and police cooperation.
• Finally, for a country to join the Schengen Zone, the candidate country must be ready to join the Schengen Information System and (VIS) for a visa.

Notably, the candidate should pass all Schengen evaluation procedures to gain admission in the zone. In this case, a team of the commissioner is obliged to carry out the Schengen Area evaluation. For instance, the commission of experts in the candidate country and draw up reports for further evaluation (Pascouau, 2012). Thus, the members identify the weakness of the joining nation and draft recommendations for approval.

In 2003, Europe established the EURODAC, an asylum fingerprint database with a central fingerprint, to collect fingerprint data for member countries of the Schengen Area. Since everyone who is applying for the asylum must have his or her fingerprints registered, the Schengen Area finds it easy to carry out a criminal investigation for their members. In 2016, EURODAC was advanced to incorporate digital photos and facial detection. It makes verification of documents easy for the frequent immigration happening in Europe.

European Union countries have been making an effort to ban barriers to their free movement of commodities and traveling. The Schengen Area gets perceived as a single country covering the majority of Europe, including some oldest and powerful nations of the continent. The majority of the lands belong to the European Union block. In contrast, others such as Lichtenstein and Switzerland do not belong to the European Union but enjoy the freedom of movement within the Schengen Area. The Schengen Area today accommodates approximately 420 million people who contribute over a billion journeys within the region.

Current Condition of Schengen Zone

The United States has currently enacted a 30 days flight ban to the Schengen Area. The flight ban is a measure to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus. However, the lockdown does not apply to members of the Schengen Area that are outside Europe, such as Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, and Turkey. The federal government of the United States believes that the restrictions of movement will reduce the spread of the disease. The US government has tightened border policies to reduce the spread of the virus from the Schengen Area to their land (Evrard, Nienaber & Sommariba, 2018). The Schengen Area is also taking desperate measures to keep its citizens safe even though economic activities in some of its members are at a standstill. The spread of the coronavirus has also compromised the free travel policy, which was the central pillar of its formation.

References

Alkopher, T. D., & Blanc, E. (2017). Schengen area has shaken: the impact of immigration-related threat perceptions on the European security community. Journal of international relations and development, 20(3), 511-542. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41268-016-0005-9

Balfour, R., & Stratulat, C. (2012). The enlargement of the European Union. European Policy Centre Discussion Paper, 10. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/156345/pub_3176_enlargement_of_the_eu.pdf

Evrard, E., Nienaber, B., & Sommaribas, A. (2018). The temporary reintroduction of border controls inside the Schengen area: towards a spatial perspective. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 1-15.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08865655.2017.1415164

Pascouau, Y. (2012). The Schengen evaluation mechanism and the legal basis problem: breaking the deadlock. European Policy Centre, Policy Brief, Brussels, 31. http://visa-free-europe.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2012/03/pub_1408_the_schengen_evaluation_mechanism_31-January.pdf