The Schengen member states and the measures taken

The member states of the passport free travel Schengen zone were five initially, when the Schengen area was formed back in year 1985. In the years that followed, the border free area was joined by many member states, namely Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The largest expansion however happened in 2007, when the no internal border area was accepted the following countries as member states – Czech Republic and Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, Malta and Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. There are three countries that are waiting to be accepted as members. Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria are not fully fledged members of the Schengen zone, though they are technically ready to become members.

The member states of the Schengen area took certain measures, which were accepted as part of the cooperation efforts under the Schengen agreement. The main rules within the Schengen border free zone include removal of the checks on persons at the internal borders of the member states, a common package of rules applied to all people who are crossing the external borders of the European Union Member states. The rest of the rules include same entry conditions and visa rules for the short term stay, good police cooperation, strong judicial cooperation, fast extradition system, establishment and usage of the common Schengen Information System.