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Four European microstates — Andorra, [4] Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City — are not officially part of the Schengen Area, but are considered de facto within the Schengen Area, as they have open or semi-open borders and do not conduct systematic border controls with the Schengen countries that surround them.
1 These countries are currently not participating in the EU's single market (EEA), but the EU has common external Customs Union agreements with Turkey (EU-Turkey Customs Union in force since 1995), Andorra (since 1991) and San Marino (since 2002). Monaco participates in the EU customs union through its relationship with France; its ports are ...
The Schengen Area consists of 25 EU member states and four non-EU countries that are members of EFTA: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Cyprus, while an EU member state, is not yet part of the Schengen Area but, nonetheless, has a visa policy that is partially based on the Schengen acquis. [2]
The Schengen area now covers 25 of the 27 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Ireland and Cyprus are not members of the Schengen zone.
It currently consists of 29 European countries covering a population of over 450 million people and an area of 4,595,131 square kilometres (1,774,190 sq mi). [ 2 ] Originally, the Schengen treaties and the rules adopted under them operated independently from the European Union .
* Norway, which belongs to the Schengen arrangement but is not an EU member, reinstated border controls in its ports with ferry connections to the Schengen area as of Nov. 12.
The two eastern European nations made a breakthrough in their bid to join the Area in late 2023
However, on 30 May 2024 the Council of the European Union authorised the opening of negotiations for separate agreements between the European Union and Andorra and San Marino, respectively, in order to create a legal basis for the absence of border controls between these countries and the Schengen Area. [24] [25]