What is the difference between the Schengen Agreement and the Schengen Convention?
The Schengen Agreement is the basic act on the gradual abolition of checks at the common borders signed in 1985 outside the EU framework between five EU Member States (Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). The Schengen Convention, signed in 1990, is the implementing act of the 1985 Agreement, providing for the abolition of controls at the internal borders of the signatory States, establishing common rules on checks at the external frontiers and introducing accompanying measures which enable the lifting of the internal border checks. The Schengen Convention came into force in 1995 and has been integrated into the framework of the European Union by the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam in May 1999. Today, 13 EU Member States (except the United Kingdom and Ireland) as well as Norway and Iceland apply the provisions of the Schengen Convention.
