Schengenn.
/ˈʃɛŋɡ(ə)n/, U.S. /ˈʃɛŋɡən/ I. Compounds.
1. Schengen agreement n. an intergovernmental agreement on the relaxation of border controls between participating European countries, the first version of which was signed in Schengen in June 1985 by France, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and ratified (in a revised form) in 1995.A second, revised Schengen agreement (sometimes known as Schengen II or the Schengen Convention) setting out the terms for implementing the first (Schengen I) was signed in June 1990, and the ratified convention was incorporated into the European Union in 1999. Additional European countries, including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, and Greece, have become Schengen signatories, and in 1995 provisional arrangements were made with members of the similarly frontier-free Nordic Union (see quot. 2000).
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society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > [noun] > nations practising international comity
comity of nations1862
Schengen agreement1988
1988 Economist (Nexis) 9 July 8 The Benelux countries, which already run a passport union, joined the other two in the Schengen agreement of 1985.
1993 G. Loescher Beyond Charity v. 126 The Schengen agreement also includes a formula for determining which country is responsible for receiving an asylum request.
1995 Independent 6 May 36/3 While the Schengen agreement is dismantling borders in Western Europe, they are avidly being restored all over the Baltics and CIS.
2000 Whitaker's Almanack 787/2 Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway are not yet full members, although all five have signed the Schengen agreement.
2.
a. General attributive. Of, relating to, or designating the Schengen agreement, the countries which have signed or implemented it, or the area that these countries form.
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1989 Financial Times 11 Jan. 2/2 At the start of next year border formalities will end between the Benelux countries, France and West Germany under the Schengen accord.
1992 Which? Dec. 35/2 Nine EC countries (excluding Denmark, Ireland and the UK) have signed the Schengen Treaty. When this comes into effect, you may have to show your passport when you first arrive at the external border of the nine, but there will be no further controls if you then go on to another of the nine.
1993 Compass (Toronto) May–June 16/2 The governance of the Schengen system is vested in an intergovernmental Executive Committee that operates completely outside the constraints of domestic or supranational law.
1995 C. Harding & B. Swart in P. Fennel et al. Criminal Justice in Europe 104 There are important differences between the Schengen countries as regards their policies of criminal law enforcement, but the Schengen Convention simply agrees to accept such differences.
2001 Independent (Electronic ed.) 23 June The government in Vienna said it was suspending membership of the European Union's visa-free Schengen zone in an effort to prevent troublemakers from disrupting next month's World Economic Forum in Salzburg.
b. Schengen Information System n. a computer network for exchanging information about wanted criminals between the countries participating in the Schengen agreement.
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1989 Economist 16 Sept. 56/2 A computer network called the Schengen Information System is being set up. The French are worried about acting on this exchange of data.
1991 R. O. Keohane & S. Hoffmann in New European Community i. 39 Concerns were expressed..about the possible access of the East German secret police to the Schengen Information System computer.
1998 Daily Tel. (Electronic ed.) 6 Jan. The Schengen countries have designed a Schengen Information System (SIS), designed to ‘compensate for the security deficit’ by keeping tabs on people it is worried about.
c. Schengen acquis n. the body of legislation and regulations associated with the Schengen agreement.The Schengen acquis was incorporated into the European Union framework in 1999.
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1997 Irish Times 2 May 10/7 There is a quite understandable wish on the part of the 13 Schengen countries not to have to renegotiate the Schengen acquis—some 2,000 pages of agreements on procedures and flanking measures associated with the implementation of the free travel area.
2002 J. Zielonka Europe Unbound i. 10 One can argue that it is difficult to seal borders that are neither fixed nor linear, but the official policy of the Union suggests that hard external borders will be the norm nevertheless. This is the essence of the Schengen acquis.
II. Simple uses.
3. The Schengen agreement; (also) the area occupied by the Schengen countries, regarded as a single unit (cf. Schengenland n.).
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1990 Internationale Spectator 44 683 (title) Schengen and the internal market: an area without internal frontiers: also without refugees?
1990 Internat. Jrnl. Refugee Law 2 428 (title of article) Refugees in Western Europe. ‘Schengen’ affects the entire refugee law.
1995 Guardian 25 Mar. 13/8 Travellers flying from inside Schengen (whatever their nationality) will be handed a smart-card on arrival which they can use to pass through an electronic turnstile.
2000 Independent 27 Mar. 2/2 Now, five years after Schengen became a reality, it covers citizens of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, Italy and Spain.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1988