Article 77 [Features and Measures of the Policy]

The political objective in establishing an internal market as an “area without internal frontiers” (Article 26.2 TFEU) supported the abolition of border controls as a “constant and concrete reminder to the ordinary citizen that the construction of a real European Community is far from complete”. After initial discussions on the feasibility of supranational law making, the Benelux countries, France and Germany, seized the initiative and signed a political commitment on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders in 1985. The latter paved the way for the “Schengen Implementing Convention” of 1990 entailing detailed rules on the abolition of border controls and corresponding flanking measures. The remaining MSs, with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom, later acceded to the Schengen Implementing Convention on the basis of international accession treaties during the 1990s. Legally, the incorporated Schengen acquis was (and continues to be) construed as a specific form of enhanced cooperation. Its establishment has already been authorised and comprises all MSs with the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland.