The new Schengen Report: European borders pass resilience test

Today, the Commission presents the first State of the Schengen Report. It assesses how Schengen countries manage their internal and external borders. The report also includes a new proposal how Schengen states can improve the management of their external borders - the European Integrated Border Management.

The state of Schengen: report highlights

• Priority actions: ensuring orderly checks at external borders for all travellers, making full use of available IT architecture and cross-border cooperation tools, and lifting all long-lasting internal border controls.
• State of Schengen: the Schengen area is in an excellent shape as more than 90% of the Schengen acquis is implemented in a compliant manner.
• New members: recommendations to enable Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania to become part of Schengen. The same will apply to Cyprus once it has successfully completed the Schengen evaluation process.
• The future of Frontex: the Commission will launch a dialogue with the European Parliament and the Council to discuss the governance of the Agency.
• Reinforced governance: the report marks the start of the new Schengen cycle establishing stronger cooperation between the European Commission, national governments, Frontex and others in the maintaining and monitoring of the Schengen area.

Despite recent crises – Russia’s war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Schengen area has proven its resilience and has emerged stronger from the encountered challenges.

Improving management of EU’s external borders

The European Integrated Border Management is EU’s main policy tool to coordinate the management of EU’s external borders for a period of five years. It is carried out by national border and coast guard authorities and Frontex.

The State of the Schengen Report includes a new policy cycle for European Integrated Border Management, starting the consultation process between The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council. The plan is to adopt a new Multi-annual Strategic Policy for European integrated border management by the end of 2022.

Next steps

The reports will serve as basis for discussions of Members of the European Parliament and Home Affairs Ministers at the Schengen Forum on 2 June, and in the upcoming Schengen Council on 3 June, to further endorse the findings of the report at political level.

More information

• State of Schengen Report
• Press release: State of Schengen Report
• Questions and Answers: State of Schengen Report