1985 Schengen Agreement

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Agreement between the governments of the states of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of controls at their common borders
Short title: Schengen Agreement
Date: June 14, 1985
Come into effect: June 15, 1985
Reference: GMBl . 1986 p. 79
Contract type: multinational government agreement, now part of the Schengen acquis
Legal matter: Administrative law
Signing: 5
Ratification : none in Germany
Please note the note on the applicable contract version .

Place of signature of the Schengen Agreement of 1985: Schengen , Luxembourg , municipality on the Moselle in the triangle of Germany, France and Luxembourg

The Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 (full official name: Agreement between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders - in literature occasionally as Schengen I called ) is a governmental agreement that was concluded on the initiative of the French President François Mitterrand and the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl between Germany , France , Belgium , the Netherlands and Luxembourg on board the Luxembourg ship Princesse Marie-Astrid near Schengen (Luxembourg), and the one Europe paved the way without internal border controls.

The Schengen Agreement of 1985 was supplemented and implemented by the Schengen Implementation Agreement (SDÜ) of 1990 (also known as Schengen II ).

Scope and legal nature

The agreement was originally a treaty under international law between the participating governments, which entered into force in Germany without domestic ratification on the day after it was signed, i.e. on June 15, 1985. The states that have also become contracting parties to the Schengen Convention have subsequently acceded to the agreement, i.e. Portugal and Spain , each with effect from May 1, 1995, Italy with effect from July 1, 1997, Austria with effect from December 1, 1997 , Denmark , Finland , Greece and Sweden , each with effect from May 1, 1999.

On May 1, 1999, the agreement was transferred to the so-called Schengen acquis and now also applies to the other states of the European Union , but excluding Great Britain and Ireland , which in the European treaties are exempt from the validity of the agreement for their countries to assure.

The agreement as such - in contrast to the Schengen Implementing Agreement as part of the further development of the Schengen acquis - has not been changed to date and continues to apply de jure . As a government agreement, however, it had already become largely meaningless with the entry into force of the Schengen Implementation Agreement. With the abolition of all internal border controls in the Schengen area , it has de facto expired. The legal situation at the borders for the entire Schengen area is now primarily regulated by the Schengen Borders Code .

history

Starting position

In the mid-1980s, the only result for the citizens of Europe after years of negotiations: the wine-red European passport

The four fundamental freedoms created by the European Treaties as early as 1957, including the free movement of persons , aimed to remove all obstacles that stood in the way of their realization. However, there was disagreement among Member States as to what constitutes an obstacle. For a long time it was only understood to mean those aspects that concerned economic integration. In 1974 the European Council instructed the Commission to work out special rights for European citizens as well, including a passport union and the dismantling of border controls at common borders. All that could be agreed on after years of negotiations, however, was merely the color and format of today's wine-red European passport. In 1982 the Commission proposed a paper aimed at facilitating checks on persons, which was unanimously rejected by the Member States. In 1984 the Council adopted a resolution on reducing the waiting time and the length of checks . Concerns about relinquishing national sovereignty came from the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian member states. Great Britain in particular wanted to see integration restricted to the economic area.

Franco-German initiative

In view of the stagnating development at European level, the German Chancellor Kohl made efforts to initially promote the abolition of border controls at the intergovernmental level. Having won the Bundestag elections on March 6, 1983, Kohl felt that he was encouraged to press ahead with European unification. In the vote of the German voters, he saw at the same time a vote for Europe and the European Community. Probably not without coincidence his efforts fell by the abolition of border controls with the election to the second elections of the European Parliament in Brussels on 14 and 17 June 1984 in which the pro-European parties were fighting for every vote. Border controls represent a significant cost factor for cross-border trade and for the traveling citizen. On behalf of the Commission , Paolo Cecchini estimated in an expert report in 1986 the cost of border formalities for all companies in the Community at 8 billion ECU or 2% of the value of the goods.

Kohl met with French President Mitterrand on May 28 and 29, 1984 as part of the Franco-German consultations at Rambouillet Castle near Paris . There both agreed to lift the border controls between the two states immediately. The Minister of the Chancellery, Waldemar Schreckenberger, was entrusted with drafting and signing a corresponding agreement . The agreement between the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the government of the French Republic on the gradual dismantling of controls at the German-French border - in short: Saarbrücken Agreement - was signed in Saarbrücken on July 13, 1984 . It came into force on the same day. The agreement was deliberately reached at the level of the head of government to the exclusion of the respective line ministries, from which considerable resistance was expected. Federal Minister of the Interior Zimmermann later had to admit that he had not known about the travel facilities.

Green sticker for the windshield according to Art. 3 of the Saarbrücken Agreement.

Article 2 of the Agreement provides as an immediate measure that the police and customs authorities on both sides carry out a simple visual inspection of vehicles crossing the border at reduced speed without stopping them. For this purpose, in accordance with Article 3, green panes attached to the windshield with a diameter of at least 8 cm should signal to the border guard that the border police regulations have been complied with, only permitted goods within the scope of the exemption limits are being carried and the currency regulations are being complied with. Further relief should be considered by October 1984 or the end of 1986.

Participation of the Benelux countries

On December 12, 1984, the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg sent the German and French governments a memorandum in which they expanded the Saarbrücken Agreement to include the Benelux Economic Union, which had been in place since 1960, and the 1969 protocol on the elimination of controls and formalities at internal borders as well as obstacles to free movement . In it, they expressed specific ideas on the topics of police and security, passenger traffic, transport as well as customs and freight traffic. The Saarbrücken Agreement then formed the basis for the Schengen Agreement adopted on June 14, 1985.

content

Original document of the 1985 agreement

The Convention is divided into two titles, Articles 1 to 16 with measures to be implemented in the short term, and a second title (Articles 17 to 27) with measures to be implemented over the long term and final provisions (Articles 28 to 33).

Immediate action

The measures that came into effect at short notice included:

  • As a rule, a simple visual inspection of the passenger vehicles crossing the common border at reduced speed without stopping them (Article 2),
  • Use of a green disk with a diameter of at least 8 cm on the windshield of the cross-border vehicle to indicate that the border police regulations are complied with, only permitted goods are carried within the scope of the exemption limits and the currency regulations are complied with (Article 3),
  • Reduction of the dwell time of commercial road passenger traffic at the border to the shortest possible time. In the case of commercial passenger transport, the systematic control of the journey form and the transport permit before January 1, 1986 (Article 4),
  • Establishment of joint control posts at the national border clearance posts located next to one another (Article 5),
  • Facilitating border traffic for people living at the common borders (Article 6),
  • Approximation of the visa policy in order to avoid possible negative consequences in the facilitation of controls at the common borders in the field of entry and internal security (Article 7),
  • Coordination of the fight against illicit drug trafficking (Article 8),
  • Strengthening police cooperation in the fight against crime, especially against the illegal trade in narcotics and weapons, against the unauthorized entry and stay of persons as well as against tax and customs evasion and against smuggling (Article 9),
  • Meetings of the authorities of the contracting parties at regular intervals to ensure the cooperation provided for in Articles 6, 7, 8 and 9 (Article 10),
  • Abandonment of systematic checks of driving and rest times, the dimensions and weights of commercial vehicles and, in general, the technical condition of the vehicles at the borders from 1 July 1985 (Article 11),
  • Abolition of systematic and introduction of random checks in the case of license-free and quota-free transports from July 1, 1985, if a corresponding sign is attached to the vehicle (Article 12),
  • Revision of the approval system applicable to cross-border road freight transport by January 1, 1986 with the aim of granting temporary permits instead of travel permits (Article 13),
  • Finding solutions to shorten the stay of rail transports caused at the borders (Article 14), combined with corresponding recommendations to the own railway administrations, to streamline the border crossing procedure and to enable freight trains to cross the border without significant border stays (Article 15),
  • Harmonization of the opening times of customs inspection posts for inland waterway transport (Article 16).

Long-term measures to be taken

Long-term measures included the dismantling of border controls at the common borders and relocation to the external borders (Article 17), the harmonization of legal provisions on narcotics law and the trade in weapons and explosives as well as hotel registration law (Article 19), an alignment of visa regulations ( Article 20), an increase in the travel allowances (Article 21), an increase in the fuel allowances for buses up to the normal tank capacity of 600 liters and for trucks (Article 22), the introduction of common border clearance systems in freight traffic (Article 23), the facilitation of the Customs clearance of goods (Article 25), a harmonization of indirect taxes (Article 26) and the abolition of the allowance limits for border residents (Article 27).

Final provisions

The final provisions stipulate an obligation to consult if a country wishes to conclude a similar agreement with a third country (Article 28), a Berlin clause (Article 29) that was still customary at the time, and implementation of the short-term measures by January 1, 1986 at the latest, and the long-term Measures to be adopted by January 1, 1990 (Article 30). In addition, Article 31 contains a regulation of competition with the Saarbrücken Agreement. According to Article 32, national ratification is not absolutely necessary, so that provisional entry into force was planned for June 15, 1985. Article 33 designated the Luxembourg Government as the place of deposit of the original of the Agreement.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Gebhardt, Rüdiger Glaser, Sebastian Lentz (eds.): Europe - a geography . Springer, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8274-2005-3 , pp. 210 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 11, 2016]).
  2. ↑ Nina Haas: The Schengen Agreement and their criminal procedural implications . facultas.wuv / maudrich, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85114-583-6 , p. 34 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 11, 2016]).
  3. ↑ Protocol of June 25, 1991 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II p. 657 ).
  4. ↑ Protocol of June 25, 1991 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II p. 657 ).
  5. ↑ Protocol of November 27, 1990 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II p. 657 ).
  6. ↑ Protocol of April 28, 1995 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II p. 657 ).
  7. ↑ Protocol of June 19, 1996 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II p. 657 ).
  8. ↑ Protocol of December 19, 1996 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II p. 657 ).
  9. ↑ Minutes of November 6, 1992 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( BGBl. 2001 II p. 657 ).
  10. ↑ Protocol of December 19, 1996 - announcement of June 14, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette 2001 II p. 657 ).
  11. ↑ See Protocols Nos. 19 , 20 and 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (OJ C 326, October 26, 2012, p. 201 ff. [From p. 290]), accessed on 13 January 2016.
  12. ↑ To the above in detail: Mechthild Baumann: Der Ent Grenzte Staat? From German to European border guards . In: Astrid Lorenz, Werner Reutter (Ed.): Order and change as challenges for state and society. Festschrift for Gert-Joachim Glaessner . Barbara Budrich, Opladen / Farmington Hills (Michigan) 2009, ISBN 978-3-86649-286-8 , pp. 403 f . ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 12, 2016]).
  13. ↑ Mechthild Baumann: The influence of the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of the Interior on the development of a European border policy . In: Uwe Hunger, Can M. Aybek, Andreas Ette, Ines Michalowski (eds.): Migration and integration processes in Europe. Communityization or nation-state solutions? VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften - GWV Fachverlage, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-16014-6 , p. 17th ff ., p. 19 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 12, 2016]).
  14. ↑ Baumann, The Influence of the Federal Chancellery, p. 20.
  15. ↑ Announcement of July 30, 1984 ( BGBl. 1984 II p. 767 ), see also page 771 not shown there ( BGBl. 1984 II p. 771 ).
  16. ↑ Baumann, The Influence of the Federal Chancellery, pp. 21/22.
  17. ↑ Open borders: We can only smile mildly , Spiegel No. 31/1984 of July 30, 1984, accessed on January 12, 2016.
  18. ↑ See last recital of the Convention.
  19. ↑ Haas, The Schengen Agreement, p. 33.