Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has accused Switzerland of misusing the Schengen agreement to put political pressure on Libya over the case of two Swiss businessmen detained in Libya in 2008.
Here are some details of the Schengen Agreement:
- The Schengen area is zone incorporating 25 European countries; 22 EU members plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway, where free movement of persons is guaranteed.
- The agreement created a single external border where immigration checks for the Schengen area were carried out in accordance with identical procedures.
- This involved improving cooperation and coordination between the police and the judiciary to protect internal security and fight organized crime.
- The Schengen Information System (SIS) was set up for this purpose. The database is used by Schengen member countries to exchange data on certain categories of people and goods.
- Removal of checks on persons at the internal borders.
- A common set of rules applying to people crossing the external borders of the EU Member States.
- Harmonization of the conditions of entry and of the rules on visas for short stays.
- Enhanced police cooperation (including rights of cross-border surveillance and hot pursuit).
- Stronger judicial cooperation through a faster extradition system and transfer of enforcement of criminal judgments.
- Establishment of the Schengen Information System.
- It is named Schengen after a village in Luxembourg where an agreement to cut border checks was signed in 1985 between the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and France.
- The agreement took effect in 1995, abolishing checks at the internal borders of the signatory states; France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
- In 2007, the European Union lifted border checks with nine of its newest members - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia and they joined the border-free "Schengen" zone on Dec. 21.
- EU members Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania are not fully-fledged members and border controls between them and the Schengen area are maintained until the EU Council decides conditions for abolishing border controls have been met.
- EU members Britain and Ireland have chosen not to join.
- Switzerland, which joined in Dec. 2008, has the same associate status as Norway and Iceland. Liechtenstein signed a protocol in Feb. 2008.
Reuters/http://europa.eu/legislation-summaries
