The Schengen agreement

The Schengen agreement was originally formed by France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg and The Netherlands in 1985. The name is derived from the place in Luxemburg where the agreement was signed. Now, there are 22 countries participating.

In the Schengen space, the borders between participating countries have no custom formalities. The custom formalities are moved to the outer borders of the Schengen space.

 

The Schengen agreement and aviation

At airports, non-Schengen travellers (people who depart to or arrive from a non Schengen country) and Schengen travellers (people who depart to or arrive from a Schengen country) must be separated. So there are Schengen terminals and non-Schengen terminals.

For example, we fly from Brussels, Belgium to Munchen, Germany. This flight will arrive at a Schengen terminal (or gate) because Belgium and Germany are both part of the Schengen space. This also means that we don’t have to go through customs, but of course we must go through the security.

If we fly from Los Angeles, U.S. to Paris, France our flight will arrive at a non-Schengen terminal (or gate) and we have to go through customs, because the U.S. doesn’t belong to the Schengen space.

Thanks to this agreement, we don’t have to stand always in long rows for customs!