Third Schengen Forum: setting the way forward

Today, the third Schengen Forum took place. Following the recent release of the State of Schengen Report, the Commission, Members of the European Parliament, Home Affairs Ministers, and other stakeholders, such as EU agencies and non-governmental organisations, met to exchange views on the state of the Schengen area and the new priorities for 2022-2023.

The discussions focused on:

• Management of EU’s external borders to ensure that the protection of the external borders and the rights of people seeking asylum are guaranteed. They exchanged views on how to strengthen the European integrated border management.
• Internal border controls should remain as an exceptional measure of last resort in light of recent rulings of the Court of Justice. The topic will continue to be discussed at the upcoming Council including to advance on the 2021 Commission’s amendment to the Schengen Borders Code.
• Internal security through reinforced police cooperation with effective implementation of the large-scale information systems by 2023, as well as effective return and common visa policies are indispensable.
• The importance of completing the Schengen area to allow Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria to formally become part of the Schengen area. The same shall apply to Cyprus once it has successfully completed the Schengen evaluation process.
• The priorities set by the Schengen evaluations in the areas of external border management, police cooperation, return, the Schengen information System, visa policies and data protection.

Next steps

Political discussions will continue on 10 June in the Schengen Council, where Ministers are expected to endorse the main priorities for 2022-2023.

More Information

• State of Schengen Report 2022
• Press release