Thirty years ago, in 1985, cooperation between individual national governments of Member States in the EU resulted in the Schengen Agreement on the gradual abolition of checks at common borders. Five years later, the Convention implementing that Agreement was signed, and the first Schengen Agreements were implemented in 1995 with seven Member States.

Today, the Schengen Area encompasses 26 countries, including almost all EU Member States, as well as non-EU States. The border-free Schengen Area makes a reality of free movement for more than 400 million EU citizens, as well as to many non-EU nationals, businessmen, tourists or other persons legally present on the EU territory.

In this framework, the EMN Conference will focus on where we are today, taking into account the growth of the Schengen area, its rapid changes as well as the challenges and opportunities the EU institutions and Members States have been and are facing. The conference will also provide the opportunity to  reflect on aspects connected to Schengen such as irregular migration in relation to our external borders.

The programme of the event is available here. For further information, see the website of the Luxembourg National Contact Point of the EMN.