As from December 2007, the European Union planed to extend the abolition of checks at internal land and sea borders (and air borders by March 2008) to nine of the new Member States of the European Union (Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic).
SCHENGEN is the name of a small Luxembourg village at the geographical meeting-point of Germany, the Benelux countries and France, where the Schengen Agreement was signed in 1985 and the Schengen Convention in 1990.
However, SCHENGEN is above all a body of European Union law (the "Schengen acquis") with two main features that enable greater freedom of movement for persons while at the same time introducing the compensatory measures needed to maintain and reinforce the level of security:
| checks on persons at the internal borders of the Signatory States are abolished and common external borders are established; |
entry conditions and the conditions for crossing external borders have been harmonised, along with the policy on issuing visas. By way of measures to compensate for the abolition of border controls, police and judicial cooperation has been strengthened, in particular by the introduction of rights of cross-border surveillance and hot pursuit for the police forces of the States of the Schengen area.
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The Schengen acquis has been accompanied by the introduction of a Schengen Information System (SIS) aimed at supplying information on certain categories of persons and property. It is a sophisticated database that can be used by national border-control and other customs and police control authorities, as well as the judicial authorities of the Schengen States, for exchanging information on certain categories of persons and property.
The great advantage of Schengen is to make it easier for people to move around by abolishing internal border checks. They can travel freely in the Schengen area, which makes for economic, regional and cultural dynamism within Europe and especially the border areas. Any foreign visitor can travel to all Schengen States on a single visa, which means, for example, that economic activity relating to tourism is promoted.
All the necessary information on where and how can a visa be obtained for entering Latvia is on Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs home page: www.pmlp.gov.lv/en
Schengen cooperation aims to protect people and their property through increased cooperation between the police forces, customs authorities and external border control authorities of all the Member States. These new forms of cooperation have been introduced to offset any risk of a security deficit connected with the abolition of internal borders.
In the context of police cooperation, the Schengen acquis provides for improved systems of communication between police forces, hot pursuit of criminals and the cross-border surveillance of suspects, as well as mutual operational assistance and direct exchanges of information between police authorities. This is an enormous advantage in the fight against terrorism, organised crime, trafficking in human beings and illegal immigration.
At the same time, strict uniform rules adopted under the Schengen agreements ensure the protection of data and protect people against any infringements of their fundamental rights.
Countries of the Schengen acquis
Up until the latest enlargement in 2007, thirteen EU Member States have been participating fully in the Schengen acquis (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden) together with Norway and Iceland. The United Kingdom has participated in only a part of the acquis (police and judicial cooperation). With a view to this enlargement of the Schengen area, nine new Member States (Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) have made a large number of changes to allow easier movement of persons:
road, air and sea infrastructures have been adapted; |
new national networks have been successfully connected to the Schengen Information System; |
and standards to ensure the protection of people's data have been introduced. |
The decision on extending the Schengen area has been taken following a detailed assessment, lasting two years, which the pairs of other Member States carried out on the new Member States' level of readiness. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania and Switzerland are expected to play a full part in the Schengen acquis in the years to come. Ireland will be able to participate in Schengen on the same terms as the United Kingdom whenever it wishes.
In year 2004, Latvia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the European Union and partly apply the Schengen provisions (covering in particular external border controls and police and judicial cooperation).Latvia successfully adjusted its national information system and completed the preparatory tasks, and together with eight other EU member states (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) become a member of the Schengen area on 21 Desember 2007, when the internal land and sea border control was abolished. Air border control was removed in March 2008.
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