Is Schengen crumbling?

Is the Schengen passport-free zone, home to 420 million people, at a point of crisis? With the mass influx of asylum seekers, which began in 2015, the political agenda is changing between EU nations, and showing signs of crumbling.

To satisfy an infuriated electorate, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, and Denmark have reintroduced border passport checks, thus shattering the belief that Schengen is unbreakable.

Was COVID the first sign that Schengen is crumbling?

It began with the COVID pandemic, when nations had to shut down their borders in order to protect their own populations from the spread of the virus. While some hoped that the vaccination campaign would return Schengen countries to permit seamless movement once more, it actually challenged the ethos behind free movement and opened up the idea of fenced borders again. Recently, both Germany and Hungary have reacted to illegal migration by reintroducing border checks.

Signs of Schengen crumbling as Hungary threatens to send migrants to Brussels by train

While Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, criticised other EU member states for temporarily suspending free movement, Austria vowed not to allow any more rejected asylum seekers from Germany to enter. The European Commission reminded states that they could only suspend Schengen in certain cases of national emergency, which was followed by Hungary’s threat to send irregular migrants to Brussels by train in retaliation for a €200 million fine from the European Court of Justice, which only heated the arguments more. Then, they opened up Hungary to nationals from Russia and Belarus on a National Card scheme, potentially threatening the integrity of the Schengen Area’s security.

The entire Schengen project to facilitate seamless movement of trade and citizens between countries has been brought into question, with member states including Austria and Hungary challenging the usefulness of the pact. Instead of bringing European peoples together, it has begun to cause mistrust and schisms between them. Member states have not heeded the EC’s advice to work together and phase out temporary border checks, and they have instead continued strengthening them, posing the question: Could this be the beginning of the end of the road for Schengen?