Schengen Area in Europe

Context- Kosovo these days secured visa-free entry to the Schengen area in Europe, world’s largest area of free movement, becoming the final western Balkan non-European Union (EU) nation to waive visa requirements.

About the Schengen Area

• The zone is thought after Schengen, the tiny Luxembourg village bordering France and Germany, in which the agreement was signed in 1985 among five of the six EU founding members except Italy.
• Currently, it’s miles away encompassing 27 European nations which have formally abolished border controls at their mutual borders.
• It mostly functions as a single jurisdiction under a common visa coverage for international tour purposes.
• Croatia, a EU member since 2013, joined Schengen in 2023, while Romania and Bulgaria, EU participants since 2007, will gain partial Schengen entry from 31 March 2024.

What are the Advantages of the EU’s Border-Free Policy?

• For nationals of any country, the advantage is the freedom to travel with a single Schengen visa to different European countries within the without boundaries region.
• For EU nations, the Visa-free without boundary lines tour, alongside the single forex followed by 20 EU countries, is the most seen symbol of European integration.
  • The integrity of Schengen was crucial for the success of the post-war European project.

Is Admission to Schengen Mandatory for EU members?

• When the Schengen settlement took effect in 1995, only 7 of the complete 15-member union at the time joined the visa-free region.
• Today, 23 of the 27 EU nations are part of the visa-free area, aside from Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria and Ireland.
• Additionally, the Schengen area contains 27 countries, consisting of four non-EU members: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway.
• It is critical no longer to confuse the reputation of the 4 nations with the latest entry of Kosovo and the opposite 5 western Balkan entrants which aren’t counted among the Schengen 27 members.

Challenges Faced by the Schengen Region

• Schengen had come underneath considerable pressure following the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis during the last decade.
• The arrival of heaps of migrants from battle zones in Africa and West Asia and the anti-immigrant-politics stoked through the continent’s far-right populist events additionally strained the region.
• The EU had even taken into consideration elimination from Schengen, international locations present at the bloc’s Mediterranean border, as individual nations contemplated unilateral reenactment of borders.

Why was Kosovo’s Application Kept Pending for Years?

• The case of Kosovo is appalling given that the European Commission had in 2018 cleared Pristina’s (capital) preparedness to address illegal migration and corruption, preconditions for the entry.
• The single biggest obstacle to the country’s Schengen visa waiver was sturdy opposition from numerous EU members, which no longer realize the 2008 unilateral announcement of independence by the breakaway state from Serbia.
• Kosovo has not been accorded prison nationhood through the UN and denied reputation by Russia and China.

Source: The Hindu

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