Advancing Schengen governance through border and visa measures

Introduction

2024 brought major developments in Schengen governance and border policy, marked by the revised Schengen Borders Code, which aimed to strengthen external border management and clarify the conditions for internal border controls as measures of last resort. 

The new Screening Regulation, adopted in May 2024, imposed a harmonised Schengen discipline to carry out identity, security, health and vulnerability checks on each irregular migrant and asylum applicants. All relevant EU and national databases must be consulted for that purpose and migrants will not be able to bypass checks in these databases. This is important for Schengen, and it is important for security in Europe.

A thematic evaluation on return was conducted across the Schengen Area, resulting in a proposal for a Council implementing decision setting out recommendations addressing identified common areas for improvement resulting from the 2024 thematic Schengen evaluation 'Bridging national gaps: towards an effective EU return system through common solutions and innovative practices'.

Another key milestone was the phased enlargement of the Schengen Area to include Bulgaria and Romania, with internal sea and air checks abolished and full access to large-scale IT systems granted in March 2024, and progress towards internal land border checks to be lifted by 1 January 2025.

The interactive map below shows the Schengen area.

Map: The Schengen Area (2024)

Using the legend below the map, click on each Schengen category, to then reveal the countries.

Border management

Political agreement was reached on the Regulation on the collection and transmission of advance passenger information (API), aimed at enhancing and facilitating external border checks by standardising the collection and transfer of API data. 

The European Commission released a Communication on countering hybrid threats from the weaponisation of migration and strengthening security at the EU’s external borders, allocating € 170 million for enhanced surveillance and security at the external borders. 

National integrated border management (IBM) strategies were developed in 11 countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Croatia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden). 

Throughout the year, the implementation of the EU’s large-scale IT systems continued across the EMN Member Countries.

Visa policy

In 2024, in relation to visa policy EMN Member Countries: 

• Streamlined their national procedures for issuing national visas (Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Malta)
• Improved their national registries (Estonia)
• Expanded opportunities for the submission of visa applications (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic)

Additionally, four EMN Member and Observer Countries imposed visa requirements on specific nationalities (Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia), while others lifted restrictions (Ireland, Georgia, Ukraine). For example:

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