Schengen: what issues affect the border-free zone?
The EU’s passport-free zone has faced many challenges in recent years. Learn more about the issues and how the EU is promoting free movement within its borders.
Several EU countries have reinstated border controls in response to terrorist attacks or migration flows. The outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 also pushed countries to bring back border controls in an attempt to control the spread of the virus.
Schengen rules allow such controls at internal borders only as temporary and exceptional measures.
How much do border controls cost and who is affected?
The border controls disrupt the free flow of people, goods and services across the EU. It mainly affects commuters (1.7 million people cross the border every day to work in another EU country), tourists and transport companies. In addition there are administrative and infrastructure costs for the public sector.
Over two years the cost of border controls is estimated at €25-50 billion in one-off costs and €2 billion in annual operating costs. Find out more details in our briefing.
Reinforcing the Schengen zone
The EU has adopted several measures to reinforce the integrity of the Schengen area:
- Systematic checks at the EU's external borders on everyone entering the EU - including EU citizens - were introduced in April 2017
- New entry and exit registration system to record the movements of non-EU citizens across the Schengen area and speed up controls
- Reinforced external boarder surveillance through the creation of the European Border and Coastguard Agency
- More powers for Europol, the EU’s police agency, to step up the fight against terrorism
Restoring Schengen
In December 2021, the European Commission proposed an update of the rules governing the Schengen area, aiming to ensure that reintroducing internal border controls remains a measure of last resort and promote the use of alternative measures such as targeted police checks and enhanced police cooperation.
MEPs have on several occasions argued against the frequent reintroduction of controls, which hampers free movement of people across the EU.
Parliament approved the update to the Schengen rules in April 2024, setting clear time limits to internal border controls. The Council gave its approval in May 2024.
On 10 November 2022, Parliament voted in favour of Croatia’s accession to the free-travel area before the end of 2022. On 1 January 2023, Croatia joined the Schengen area.
On 30 December 2023, EU countries unanimously decided to give the green light for the removal of border controls with Bulgaria and Romania at the EU's internal air and maritime borders on 31 March 2024. Controls at land borders were lifted on 1 January 2025.
The Schengen zone in numbers
- 29: the number of countries in the Schengen zone
- 4: how many non-EU countries are part of Schengen (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland)
- 2: EU countries that are not part of Schengen (Cyprus and Ireland)
- Over 4 million: area of the Schengen zone in square kilometres
This article was initially published in May 2018 and was last updated in January 2025