COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, April 08, 2013

QUESTION NO.2

QUESTION: Councillor M. Devine

To ask the Manager to give a report on the SCHENGEN AREA initiative across Europe and to include whether Ireland/ SDCC would benefit from membership?

REPLY:

The Schengen Area is a group of 26 European countries which have abolished passport and immigration controls at their common borders. This in effect means that the area functions almost as a single country for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. The Area is named after a town of the same name in Luxembourg where the original agreement which led to the Area's creation, was signed. Joining Schengen entails eliminating internal border controls with the other Schengen members, while simultaneously strengthening external border controls with non-Schengen states.

Twenty-two EU member states and four non-EU member states participate in the Schengen Area. Of the five EU members which do not form part of the Schengen Area three – Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania– are legally obliged to join the area, while the other two – Ireland and the United Kingdom – have exercised an opt out clause. Four non-EU members – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland – participate in the Schengen Area while three European microstates – Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican – can be considered as de facto part of the Schengen Area as they do not have border controls with the Schengen countries which surround them. The area currently covers a population of over 400 million people and an area of 4.3 million square kilometres.

The Schengen Area was established outside of the then European Community when consensus could not be reached among all of its member states on the abolition of border controls. However as more EU member states signed up to join the Schengen Area, agreement was reached on absorbing it into the European Union, which was done by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999.

As indicated both Ireland and the United Kingdom, have not signed the Schengen Agreement, but operate and maintain a Common Travel Area for their citizens when travelling between their countries. It is understood that the UK initially declined to join because of elements related to passport control, as they were of the view that for an island, frontier controls were a better and less intrusive way to prevent illegal immigration than other measures. Ireland has stated that it had not signed the Schengen Implementation Convention because it would not be in the interest of Ireland to have a situation where the common travel area with Britain would be ended and Ireland would impose both exit and entry controls on persons travelling between here and Britain and, in addition, on the land frontier.

However Ireland submitted a request to participate in Schengen in 2002, which was approved by the Council of the European Union, but that decision has not yet been put into effect. In February 2010 the Minister for Justice, in response to a parliamentary question, said that: "the measures which will enable Ireland to meet its Schengen requirements are currently being progressed".

A Short-stay Visa Waiver Programme was introduced with effect 1 July, 2011 and was scheduled to run on a pilot basis until the end of October, 2012 taking in the period of the London Olympics. The Programme was announced as an integral part of the Government’s Jobs Initiative and was intended to promote tourism, particularly from emerging markets. Nationals of sixteen countries were originally included in the programme. The countries involved are India, Kazakhstan, the Peoples’ Republic of China, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. Bosnia and Herzegovina has now been added to this list. As part of the initiative, nationals of these countries, who are long-term legal residents in the UK or the Schengen area, will have the cost of an Irish visa waived should they wish to visit Ireland. It is estimated that there are up to 1 million people in this category in the UK alone. This programme has now been extended for a further four year period.