Although not a member of the EU, Switzerland, because of its position at the heart of Europe, maintains strong economic and social relations with many Schengen states and is part of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) with Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein (other third countries within the Schengen area). Switzerland became an integral part of the Schengen area after signing the agreement on 26 October 2004 and beginning to implement it on 12 December 2008. People and goods can move relatively freely along the internal borders of the 26-state Schengen area. The idea is that the agreement, to which 22 EU countries belong, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, will stimulate the domestic economy and facilitate human mobility in a way that only a few regions of the world allow. Relations between Iceland and Norway, on the one hand, and Ireland and the United Kingdom, on the other, in the areas of the Schengen acquis applicable to Iceland and Norway are governed by an agreement approved by the Council of the European Union on 28 June 1999. This means that Schengen Member States that were not part of the EU have few formally binding options to influence the development and development of Schengen rules; their options are effectively reduced to approval or exit from the agreement. However, consultations are being held with the countries concerned prior to the adoption of certain new provisions. [14] Now that the Schengen Agreement is part of the Community acquis, it has lost to EU members the treaty status which could only be changed on its terms. Instead, changes are made in accordance with the EU`s legislative procedure under the EU treaties. [12] Ratification by the former signatory states is not necessary to amend or repeal all or part of the previous Schengen acquis. [13] Acts setting out the conditions for accession to the Schengen area are now adopted by a majority of the EU`s legislative bodies.

The new EU Member States do not sign the Schengen Agreement as such, but are required to implement the Schengen rules within the framework of existing EU legislation, which any new entrant must accept. [Citation required] With the entry into force on 1 May 1999 of the Schengen Protocol of the Treaty of Amsterdam of 2 October 1997, Schengen cooperation was transposed into EU law, initially solely on the basis of an international agreement. Differences of opinion between Member States led to a deadlock in the abolition of border controls within the Community, but in 1985 five of the ten Member States at the time – Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany – signed an agreement on the phasing out of border controls. The agreement was signed on the princess Marie-Astrid boat in Moselle, near the city of Schengen,[5] where the territories of France, Germany and Luxembourg meet. Three of the signatories, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, had already abolished common border controls under the Benelux Economic Union. [Citation required] The Schengen Agreement includes two separate agreements that were ratified in 1985 and 1990 respectively. Between them, they abolished border controls and greatly facilitated transit through Europe. The two individual agreements stipulate that in December 1996, two non-EU states, Norway and Iceland, signed an association agreement with the countries that signed the Schengen accession agreement.