2025 State of Schengen Report

On 23 April, the European Commission adopted its annual report on the State of Schengen. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the functioning of the Schengen area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers. This year’s report comes at the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Schengen Agreement.

The 2025 State of Schengen Report underlines that the Schengen area continues to be a cornerstone of European integration, enabling free movement for hundreds of millions of people and underpinning the functioning of the Single Market. From a cross-border perspective, it highlights the significant value generated by frictionless mobility in border regions, where daily commuting, logistics, and service provision depend on the absence of internal border checks. However, this ideal of seamless movement is increasingly challenged by the reintroduction of temporary internal border controls in several Member States, which the report notes as creating uneven conditions for cross-border mobility and introducing delays and uncertainty in transport and labour flows.

The report also points to persistent disparities in the implementation and use of shared Schengen information systems, which weakens cross-border operational coordination. Uneven data quality and varying levels of integration reduce the effectiveness of joint law enforcement cooperation and limit real-time information exchange between national authorities. These gaps have direct implications for cross-border security and mobility management, as inconsistencies in system use can create blind spots that affect both migration control and internal security across neighbouring jurisdictions.

Read the full report below