
We will not allow Schengen to fail
- Analysis
- Ursula von der Leyen
It has been 35 years since a number of Member States agreed to remove border controls between themselves. From five countries at the time, the Schengen Area grew to 26, counting 420 million citizens. A whole generation of Europeans grew up with little memory of systematic internal border checks. Border checks have become anecdotal. Many Europeans organised their lives around the freedoms that Schengen offers.