Europe's vanishing borders: the Schengen treaty

By the end of 2008 Europeans will be able to travel from the Atlantic coast to the
Russian border without ever showing a passport – thanks to the Schengen treaty.

by Paul Kieffer
December 21, 2006

Schengen border
In Glanerbrücke/Glanerbrug the Dutch-German
border is indicated by the yellow line.
 

In November 1973 my employer in Düsseldorf, Germany sent me to a printing company near London to deliver some 200,000 return envelopes that were to be stitched into a magazine we published. The editorial work on the magazine was done in Germany, but because of lower costs and other considerations the printing was done in England

On my trip I drove a small delivery van stuffed with boxes of envelopes. When I reached the Dutch-German border near Arnhem, I had to show my passport to enter the Netherlands. I also had to pay a transit security deposit for the envelopes, since I told customs officials I would be taking them to England and not delivering them in the Netherlands.

When I reached the Dutch coast for the ferry trip over to England, I again had to show my passport as I left the Netherlands. I also did some more paperwork for Dutch customs to get my security deposit back.

Today I sometimes cross the Dutch-German border at the very same point as I did some 33 years ago. What a remarkable difference there is today! There are no immigration or customs officials checking passports at a booth on the Autobahn. Instead, you just slow down a bit from the high speeds allowed in Germany to the 120 kmh allowed in the Netherlands on the freeway and continue on your way.

What makes crossing the border today so different? Of course, one reason is the customs union that the European Union has become in the last 30 years. Goods are able to be bought and sold easily across national borders as long they are not subject to restrictions (which most aren't).

The other difference, though, is a treaty that eliminates immigration checkpoints along borders of countries who are signatories – to the "Schengen" treaty. The EU countries participating in the Schengen treaty comprise the Schengen zone. That zone may not be as well known as the Euro zone (for Europe's common currency, the euro), but it has been in existence several years longer.

Background of the Schengen treaty

In 1985 France, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the Benelux countries signed a treaty to eliminate border controls among them. The location for the treaty signing was symbolic: aboard the ship Princesse Marie-Astrid on the Moselle River near the town of Schengen, located in Luxembourg on the border with France and Germany. The treaty went into effect ten years later, and the number of countries having signed the treaty has now increased to 26, including 3 non-EU states: Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. There is no requirement for EU member states to sign the treaty. The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom are not signatories and are unlikely to sign anytime soon.

To date 15 of the signatories have implemented the treaty, comprising the current Schengen zone. Each Schengen country has the responsibility to provide border controls for its non-Schengen external borders. In exchange for fulfilling this obligation, there are no border or immigration controls on the movement of people within the Schengen zone when they travel from one Schengen country directly to another. That's why my trips today from Germany to the Netherlands (and elsewhere within the Schengen zone) have become so convenient.

All Schengen member countries have external borders, even if they are landlocked. Luxembourg is an example of a landlocked Schengen country, and the Czech Republic and Switzerland will be as well once they implement the treaty sometime in the next two years. Luxembourg's land borders are all joint borders with Schengen countries, but it also has an international airport. Luxembourg fulfils its Schengen responsibility by ensuring that all non-Schengen visitors who enter Luxembourg via its airport have an appropriate visa for the Schengen zone.

Switzerland's participation in the Schengen treaty is an interesting development for a country that prides itself on its neutrality. Thousands of Germans cross the German-Swiss border every day to get to their jobs, and Swiss shoppers frequently head for France, Italy and Germany to purchase items at lower prices in the Euro zone. The prospect of having strict border controls on travellers across its borders to the surrounding Schengen zone was a looming long-term headache that is now solved by Switzerland's impending implementation of the treaty.

The Schengen treaty also permits its participating countries to suspend implementation for a short time if a country deems the suspension to be necessary for national security. Just last summer Germany suspended the Schengen treaty during the 2006 World Cup tournament, and France did likewise in 2004 on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Schengen countries are also permitted to make individual customs inspections within their own borders as long as there are no general passport inspections on joint Schengen borders. I occasionally see German border police checking vehicles at rest stops along the Autobahn in Germany after they have crossed into Germany from the Netherlands. With Dutch law re: drugs being more liberal than German law, some do attempt to return to Germany with substances obtained in the Netherlands that are illegal in Germany.

The Schengen treaty and implications for the European Union

No doubt many people equate the Schengen treaty with the European Union. In fact, however, the Schengen treaty was originally not an EU treaty. Instead, it was signed independently of the EU by five countries, all of whom also happened to be EU members. Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands proceeded with the Schengen agreement at a time when no consensus could be reached within the EU on eliminating internal border controls. Later EU agreements have essentially adopted the provisions of the Schengen treaty, now making it in a sense an EU accord.

The success of the Schengen treaty among its original participants may have prodded the EU into adopting the treaty. The Schengen agreement shows that EU members may enter into treaties among themselves when there is no EU-wide consensus. There is no EU prohibition on doing so, and one of the key areas where a Schengen-like agreement may be perceived to be needed by some EU countries is on the question of achieving full political union.

The EU is largely divided into two groups. One group – including the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom – would prefer to see the European Union be an enhanced free-trade zone. The other group is interested in achieving full political union, including the founding members of the EU's forerunner, the European Economic Community. With two more countries having joined the EU on January 1, 2007 (Romania and Bulgaria), the current EU decision-making process has become even more cumbersome. The single nation veto power remains the big obstacle to streamlining the EU's structure – something last year's failed EU constitution was designed to do.

With Germany assuming the six month rotating EU Presidency this month, many pin their hopes on chancellor Angela Merkel's negotiating skill to get the stalled constitution back on the EU agenda. If she is unsuccessful, talk will surely surface again – as it has already – about the need for a "Europe of two speeds" or a "core Europe" of nations willing to proceed on their own toward full political unity.

The Schengen treaty of 1985 shows that it can be done, which as a precedent may well be a greater success than the free movement of Europeans within their own extended Schengen border.

• Paul Kieffer, December 21, 2006