eunion1-5, Exercise 2: Schengen

Model answer:

Schengen began with an agreement signed in June 1985 in the village of Schengen in Luxembourg by Belgium, France, West Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, outside the EU's formal structure because not every member wished to go as far. A fuller convention followed in 1990, and the first controls were removed in March 1995 for a small group of countries. The Amsterdam Treaty (1997) brought the Schengen rules into the EU's legal framework.

It does: remove routine passport and customs checks at internal borders, with stronger checks at the outer borders, shared police databases (the Schengen Information System), common short-stay visa rules and a border agency (Frontex).
It does not: abolish a state's power to check identity inside the country, or stop temporary checks being reintroduced for serious threats.