Before applying for Schengen Visa, everything you need to know about the Schengen Agreement, Countries, Visa Types, Requirements, Insurance, Application Form, Guidelines and How to Apply. Let's start
The concept of free movement between the European countries has existed for a long time and can already be found in the Middle Ages. This idea has been discussed in modern times since Europe suffered from the Second World War.
However, concrete measures did not follow until the 1980s, when Europe got stuck in an incessant debate between two opposing camps: one part supported the idea of a free Europe without internal borders with other countries, the other strongly opposed it.
France and Germany are the pioneering nations that have taken the first steps towards the free movement concept, and these steps were fleshed out when it was agreed to take this over-debated concept to the next level. On June 17, 1984, the two countries were the first to raise the above issue at the Fontainebleau European Council, where all agreed to define the necessary conditions for free movement of people.
At the end of this development came the "Schengen Agreement", which was only signed on June 14, 1985, and which dealt with the gradual abolition of internal borders between states and expanded control of external borders.
The agreement was signed by the following five (5) European countries in Schengen, a small village in southern Luxembourg on the Moselle: France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
Five years later, on June 19, 1990, a convention for the concrete implementation of the Schengen Agreement was signed. This convention included issues related to the abolition of internal border controls, the definition of procedures for issuing a uniform visa, the use of a single database for all members called SIS (Schengen Information System) and the creation of a structure for cooperation between police and border officers.
As a result, the concept of the Schengen area was continuously expanded; Italy joined on November 27, 1990, Portugal and Spain joined on June 25, 1991, and Greece on November 6, 1992.
Despite the establishment of the Schengen Agreement, including treaties and laws, the true implementation of the Schengen area did not begin until March 26, 1995, when seven (7) Schengen member states decided to abolish their internal border controls: France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.
Since then, the Schengen area has shown a rapid trend towards development and expansion. Accordingly, Austria joined on April 28, 1995, and five (5) other countries on December 19, 1996: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Italy, which followed the example of the seven countries already mentioned, became a member in October and Austria abolished internal border controls in December 1997.
Another major step forward was the “Amsterdam Agreement” in May 1999, which integrated the Schengen Agreement into the legal framework of the European Union, since the Schengen agreements and regulations that were drawn up by mutual agreement were not part of the European Union in the past and were handled autonomously,
The expansion of the Schengen area continued successfully when Greece joined in January 2000 and 15 new countries thereafter. In March 2001 these were Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Norway, on April 16, 2003, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia were added, and in October 2004 Switzerland.
The concept of success went even further because in December 2007 the same countries declared the abolition of their national and maritime borders and in March 2008 the abolition of airport border controls.
In February 2008, Liechtenstein became the 26th and so far the last country to sign the Schengen Agreement and became part of the Schengen area.
Switzerland abolished internal border controls in December 2008 and airport border controls in March 2009.
The last important event to implement the Schengen Agreement took place in December 2011, when Liechtenstein declared the abolition of internal border control three years after it was signed.
A member state of the European Union (EU) does not necessarily have to be a member of the Schengen area, although this is legally an inevitable step. The majority of the following EU member states remained outside the Schengen Agreement due to unresolved political problems.