By Beatriz Santos Mayo
Introduction
Nowadays, you can travel from Paris to Barcelona and from Milan to Munich without having your passport stamped. Since 1995, the Schengen Agreement has enabled over 450 million people to study, work, and travel freely across the European continent without requiring passport checks at internal borders. However, several member states have reintroduced internal border controls, citing reasons such as terrorism or irregular migration. These checks affect land, air, and even sea borders in some cases, despite being meant as temporary and exceptional. However, in practice, they have become increasingly common.
These new controls are a test for the entire idea of a borderless Europe. For travelers, it means the days of check-free traveling are numbered. For policymakers, it is a balancing act between keeping Europe safe and keeping it open. And for countries like Romania and Bulgaria, which finally joined Schengen after years in the waiting room, this was not exactly the warm embrace they had hoped for. The question now is: is this the new normal, or just another bump in the road for the EU’s most ambitious experiment?
No Borders
The Schengen Area was established with its signing on June 14, 1985, in the small Luxembourgish town of Schengen. The signatories, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, agreed to gradually eliminate internal border checks and facilitate the free movement of people. It was further developed with the Schengen Convention of 1990. These outlined measures aimed to abolish border control and establish common visa rules. These rules were incorporated into the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1999. Since its introduction, it has expanded to include most EU countries and a few non-EU states, such as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, totaling 29 countries.
One of the principles of the EU is the freedom of movement. Article 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) guarantees that every EU citizen has the right to move and live freely. This was ratified in Directive 2004/38/EC, also known as the Free Movement Directive. In this directive, EU citizens and their family members can enter another Member State with a valid passport or ID card. Additionally, EU citizens are exempt from visa requirements for entry.
Codes of Codes
The Schengen Area is governed by the Schengen Borders Code (Regulation (EU) 2016/399). It provides the legal architecture for both the internal border controls and the management of the external borders. The code stipulates that internal border checks must be abolished, but it also outlines the conditions under which they may be temporarily reintroduced.
In theory, these controls are subject to strict time limits. Member states must notify the European Commission and other Schengen states, providing a justification and evidence for the necessity and proportionality of the measures. The Commission may issue an opinion, but the ultimate decision remains with the member state.
Recently, the Code was reformed and adopted in 2024 in an attempt to address the proliferation of so-called temporary controls that have, in practice, become semi-permanent in several member states. The new regulations impose stricter conditions, requiring the country to provide detailed justifications and to notify the European Commission and other Schengen members in advance.
The figures speak, however, for themselves. Germany has checks in place at nearly all its land borders and plans to extend them through the end of 2025. France, citing ongoing terrorist threats, continues to police its borders. The Netherlands introduced checks, and even Spain, typically a more reserved nation, has maintained increased supervision around major events and periods of heightened migration.
Poland became the latest to slam the brakes on Europe’s border-free travel zone, reintroducing checks with Germany and Lithuania in a move that is more about political posturing than a certain impact. Berlin did it first, Warsaw followed, and now the Schengen dream is looking shakier by the week. Officials say it’s all temporary, but critics call it stage-managed symbolism with minimal results and maximum disruption. They argue that the measures are highly publicized gestures designed to signal control, yet they have little measurable effect on migration flows, creating long delays at border crossings. What was once the exception is fast becoming the rule, and with each extension, the vision of a borderless Europe becomes difficult to recognize.
Consequently, all eyes in Europe are on the European Commission. The Commission conducts regular inspections through the Schengen Evaluation and Monitoring Mechanism (SEMM). Through detailed reports and recommendations, the Commission holds countries accountable, which can ultimately lead to infringement procedures and bring cases to the EU Court of Justice. However, while the Commission’s role is decisive, the real enforcement depends on the political will of national governments. Due to this, the Schengen dream risks sliding into a fragmented reality of fences and controls.
Conclusion
Decades after its launch transformed Europe into the world’s largest border-free zone, the Schengen project is under mounting pressure. With more member states reinstating internal border checks year after year, the line between temporary measures and permanent fixtures has grown dangerously thin. In 2025, Bulgaria and Romania finally received a bittersweet welcome into the Schengen Area, joining just as the system they had long aspired to became increasingly fragmented.
The real control still rests with national governments, giving them a legal smokescreen to keep borders up almost indefinitely. If this is Brussels’ answer to safeguarding Schengen, it feels more like a slow retreat than a bold defense. Unless capitals begin to prioritize shared European unity over isolated security theatrics, the vision of a truly open Europe may soon be little more than a memory.
About the author
Beatriz Santos Mayo is 21 years old and from Spain. She lives in the Netherlands and is pursuing a master’s degree in Public Administration at Leiden University. She holds a BA in European Studies from Maastricht University (the Netherlands) and an MSc in International Politics from KU Leuven (Belgium). Her academic interests span several key areas of European politics, including migration, EU enlargement, and the role of institutions in the policy implementation process.
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