Just a few months earlier, similar far-right rhetoric was one of the drivers for reinstalling border controls in Germany, one of the first five countries to sign the treaty nearly 40 years ago.
What the far-right tends to omit, however, is that despite perceived and real challenges to national security, the majority of EU citizens remain strongly in favour of the free travel zone. A recent Eurobarometer survey clearly illustrated this, with 63% of Europeans believing that reinforcing cooperation within the Schengen area is a key priority for the upcoming years. Furthermore, this is not the first time that Schengen has been put to the test. Back in 2015, when a record number of refugees and migrants entered and crossed the continent, prompting eight countries to reintroduce internal border control temporarily, public opinion again remained strongly in favor of the treaty.
In Bulgaria and Romania, the majority is also in support of their countries’ entry to Schengen. For both, joining Schengen is one of the final steps to European integration. Once implemented, the measure will enable people to pass borders without documents, queuing or potentially justifying their trip at border control. Borders, however, are not just barriers to the free movement of people and goods. They also play a central role in mapping perceptions of where nations begin and end. As such, they have historically shaped the collective identities of nations. So if the establishment of national borders has the power to shape national identities, what impact might their abolition have on those identities?
The cultural significance of being able to travel, study and work freely abroad has been best demonstrated by another European project: the Erasmus Plus Programme. For many young people, the opportunity to work or study abroad has been their first direct experience of a different educational, social and work system in a country outside of their homeland. This exposure to the multiplicity of cultures and experiences which are so inherent to the EU has given the younger generation a sense of what it means to be a European and experience everyday life in ways that transcend national identity.
If projects like Erasmus Plus that promote mobility have defined the notion of what it means to be European, by removing physical barriers between states, the expansion of the Schengen area has the potential to make the notion and lived experience of a shared European identity even more nuanced by allowing people to perceive the continent as one entity instead of a patchwork of nations. The Schengen expansion, as such, is believed to be a vital step to European integration for the two countries.
Initiatives like Schengen and Erasmus Plus, however, are long-term projects and their impact on fostering a shared identity beyond nation-states is slow to be seen. This fact is often leveraged by the rising far-right whose agenda is traditionally set against the principles of cooperation and solidarity promoted by the Schengen agreement. Such anti-EU and pro-Russian parties are making waves not just in Bulgaria and Romania but also across the continent. Against this gloomy backdrop, the Schengen expansion might not be just a welcome development for those in favour of the principles of free trade and mobility. In the end, with its promise of strengthening European values, it might also be the silver lining that the democratic community has been hoping for.
