In 2023, the Schengen area remained the most visited destination in the world, with more than 10 million Schengen visas issued and more than half a billion passengers, according to the European Commission in a new annual report published on Tuesday 16 April.
“This has significantly contributed to the EU economy, as tourism contributes close to 10% of the EU’s GDP and provides jobs to about 22.6 million people”, it also commented in a press release.
The 2024 State of Schengen “reports on the achievements, challenges and developments in the Schengen area during the last cycle of 2023-2024. The report shows that the Schengen rules are well applied, although there are some implementation gaps”, continues the press release.
The report looks at developments in Schengen, including new rules on the Schengen Borders Code (to be put to the vote in plenary next week), the Advance Passenger Information (API) Regulation (the report notes here that several countries, such as France, Belgium and Greece, do not yet have the appropriate mechanisms in place to organise the collection of this data) and the Directive on Information Exchange between law enforcement authorities.
“Following the adoption of the revised Schengen Borders Code, Member States, in close cooperation with the Schengen Coordinator, will work to put in place the new measures, including police cooperation, to phase out long-lasting internal border controls”, the Commission states as well.
“Historic” steps to complete the Schengen area have also been taken with Bulgaria and Romania, starting with lifting controls at air and sea borders as of 31 March 2024. Another EU Council Decision is required to lift checks at the internal land borders with Bulgaria and Romania.
The report also highlights the progress made in the use of alternative measures to internal border controls and the Commission calls on Member States to make greater use of reinforced frameworks of cooperation such as cross-border police cooperation in border regions as an alternative to internal border controls.
On this subject, the report states that “the reintroduction of internal border controls have been a matter of specific concern for the Commission. In the 2023 State of Schengen Report, the Commission launched a consultation with all the Member States concerned by internal border controls to discuss the underlying reasons for the reintroduction of such controls and their impact. The consultations with the Schengen Coordinator highlighted the non-systematic nature of the checks at the majority of the border sections and the overall increased cross-border cooperation”.
In October 2023, “following the increasing migratory pressure at the EU’s external borders and the rise in terrorist threats across the Schengen area, some Member States reintroduced controls at new sections of the internal borders. Since then, the Schengen Coordinator has continued the close dialogue, both with the Member States concerned by the long-lasting internal border controls as well as the Member States concerned by the newer reintroductions of internal border controls”.
This has allowed for “ important progress to be achieved at several border sections over the last months. Notably, all Member States which reintroduced internal border controls reported having significantly increased cross-border police cooperation with their neighbours, including joint patrols, as well as cooperation on readmission”.
At the Austro-Hungarian border, discussions are underway to set up a Border Security Task Force, which would be based on a trilateral agreement between Hungary, Serbia and Austria and would allow for a higher level of cooperation in the fight against cross-border crime and border protection.
Cross-border cooperation has been reinforced between Croatia, Slovenia and Italy as well.
In 2023, Europol also stepped up its operational support to Member States to combat migrant smuggling, leading, among other things, to the lifting of internal border controls at the Czech-Slovak border, the Slovak-Hungarian border and the Polish-Slovak border at the beginning of 2024.
The Schengen coordinator will also continue supporting Member States in strengthening their cross-border cooperation to phase out the internal border controls, in particular at those borders that require additional joint measures, notably the French-Spanish border, the German-Austrian, and the German-Polish border.
“These controls divert crucial resources from external border management and have negative socio-economic consequences”.
To read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/bsd (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)