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Working group

Border Controls in the Schengen Area and EU Citizenship

The European Union Law Working Group

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When

28 September 2021

17:00 - 18:30 CEST

Where

ZOOM

ZOOM

Organised by

This lecture will feature a presentation by Professor Jorrit Rijpma, Professor of European Law and Jean Monnet Chair on Security and Mobility in Europe (MOSE) at Leiden University, on the issue of border controls in the Schengen area and their interaction with EU citizenship.

Border controls within the Schengen area are meant to be a thing of the past. Yet, since the refugee crisis of 2015, temporary border controls have become quasi permanent in several European Union Member States. Although these controls are against the letter and spirit of the Schengen Borders Code, the Commission has not taken any measures to enforce these rules.

Against this background, we argue that from its beginning the objective of the project to abolish border controls was to foster a supranational political identity of Union citizens by transforming citizens’ spatial experience. Union citizenship in the current EU Treaty framework constitutes the legal expression of that historical connection between the abolition of border controls and free movement. Emphasizing the citizenship dimension of an area without internal frontiers provides a different perspective on current controls at the Schengen internal borders.

Speaker(s):

Jorrit Rijpma

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