On Monday 18 May, the European Commission published its fifth annual report on the state of the Schengen area, setting out a roadmap for 2026-2027. While it welcomes the far-reaching digital transition that has effectively fortified the area of free movement, it urges Member States to urgently unify their national governance in the face of a “volatile geopolitical environment”.
The report praises the success of the Entry/Exit System (EES), deployed for six months from mid-October 2025, which has radically modernised flow management. During this initial phase, more than 60 million crossings by third-country nationals were recorded, resulting in the blocking of 30,000 unauthorised persons, including 800 people identified as “direct threats to internal security”. This digitisation has also led to a spectacular increase in daily fingerprint checks in the Schengen Information System (SIS), jumping from 17,000 to around 87,000.
With regard to the fight against illegal immigration, the Commission notes that illegal crossings at the Union’s external borders fell by 26% in 2025, compared with the previous year. The tightening of migration policies has also resulted in a 28% return rate for irregular migrants, the highest level for ten years.
However, the Commission points to major “operational disparities” between Member States. It urges the Schengen Council, which meets next month, to formally adopt the strategic priorities for the new cycle in order to correct these blind spots. In particular, the report encourages the acceleration of the digitisation of visas, the deployment of the future ETIAS system and the mandatory integration of return policies into national emergency plans – a major shortcoming for the majority of States.
To break down the silo system, the Commission also wants to encourage each Member State to centralise its management under the aegis of a single “national Schengen coordinator”.
The report is backed up by a list of best practices to guide Member States. The document cites Romania as an example, praised for its automated transmission of border alerts to its secondary control lines, and Croatia for its automated system for pre-reading number plates at land borders.
The Schengen 2026 report: https://aeur.eu/f/lya (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)