The Schengen Area, where 29 countries dropped the checkpoints between them
Every day about 1.7 million people cross an internal European border on the way to work without showing a passport. That freedom traces back to a deal signed in 1985 by just five countries in Schengen, a small Luxembourg village, because the wider European Community could not agree on it.
Borders in Europe were mostly relaxed before the First World War, which is how wealthy young travellers could wander through the Grand Tour. Visas and checkpoints spread between the wars. After 1945 regional deals chipped away at them: the Nordic countries allowed free movement and residence among themselves in 1954, and the Benelux states opened their shared frontiers in 1960.
On 14 June 1985 Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and West Germany signed the Schengen Agreement, acting outside Community structures since the other five members of the then ten-nation EEC would not join. A 1990 convention added the plan to scrap internal controls and share a visa policy, and the zone went live on 26 March 1995. The Amsterdam Treaty of 1997, in force from 1999, folded the arrangement into EU law.
Membership now stands at 29 countries. It includes non-EU Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, while two EU states stay outside. Ireland opted out to keep its Common Travel Area with the United Kingdom, a passport-free zone dating from 1923. Romania and Bulgaria were the latest to enter: air and sea checks ended on 31 March 2024 and land checks on 1 January 2025, although the Commission had judged them technically ready back in 2011. Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City are part of it in practice.
The zone stretches from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, covering about 4,595,000 square kilometres and more than 450 million people. It is the most visited travel region on Earth. Visitors from around 60 countries may stay without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180, and in 2024 member states handled 11.7 million visa applications, issuing roughly 9.7 million.
Source: Schengen Area
