Schengen Agreement

From Hitchwiki
Revision as of 21:21, 9 November 2007 by Guaka (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Schengen Agreement, as far as travelers are concerned, basically dissolves borders within all member countries. Once you have entered the Schengen area, you may travel freely within all member countries for 90 days without having to cross passport control points. If you are a citizen of one of these countries, you can travel within all member countries without any limits and without a passport. Therefore, the Schengen agreement extension will reveal to be an hassle for Non-EU passport holder, as the nearest border to cross and back (for a new 90 days) will be less reachable.

For Canadian, US, Australian, Neo-Zelandese passport holders, the remaining options will be to cross to the United Kingdom or go down to the Balkans and Ukraine once you're nearing your 90 days limits within Schengen.

Notice that sometimes at Schengen borders, especially while going with the train, policemen do come on board and ask to see your documents. Usually it's trouble-free, but they tend to harass Balkans and Turks more often than others.

Member States

26 European states have signed the agreement, including all European Union countries spare Ireland and the United Kingdom and a few non-EU countries. 15 of these countries have implemented the agreement so far, including:

From 21st of December 2007, the next countries will open their border:


Switzerland, Bulgaria and Romania are aiming to implement the agreement at the end of 2008.

Trivia

  • The Schengen Agreement was signed in Schengen, a village directly on the three border point of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.
  • Close to the village of Schengen there is an access lane onto a motorway which connects Saarbrucken and Luxembourg. This access lane is not very suitable for hitchhiking for three reasons; first there is very little space for drivers to make a stop, second the access lane gives access to both directions on the motorway and third Luxembourgian drivers are not overly prepared to serve rides. Fverhart waited one hour near this access lane, before he finally got a short lift to a service station in Luxembourg.