Restoring the borderless Schengen area: Mission Impossible?

Considering the frequent resort to checks at internal borders of Schengen States in recent years, it is increasingly contended that the Schengen system – designed precisely to avoid such border checks – is in crisis. In September 2024, for example, the German government announced to reintroduce checks at all its intra-Schengen borders. Meanwhile, the EU Commission has been on a mission to ‘save Schengen’, and in spring 2024, the Council and the European Parliament agreed on a reform of the Schengen Borders Code alongside a broader package of changes to EU justice and home affairs law.

In a recent SIEPS European Policy Analysis, Steve Peers, Professor of EU Law and Human Rights Law at Royal Holloway University of London, takes stock of the current state of checks at internal borders, the existing legal framework, and the recent reform of the Schengen Borders Code. He also assesses possible impacts of this reform, seeking answers to the question if Schengen can be restored as an area without internal border controls and what could be done to facilitate this process.

At this webinar, Steve Peers presented the results of his research. Jonas Bornemann (University of Groningen) and Anna Kompatscher (University of Flensburg) contributed comments, insights into their own research as well as further reflections and recommendations in the context of recent developments regarding border checks within the EU.