Schengen Borders Code

The Schengen Borders Code (SBC) is the European Union regulation that codifies the rules governing the movement of persons across the borders of the Schengen Area. It was first adopted as Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 and recast as Regulation (EU) 2016/399, with subsequent amendments. The Code applies to all persons crossing the internal or external borders of participating states, without prejudice to the rights of EU citizens and beneficiaries of free movement under EU law.

The SBC has two principal pillars:

• External border controls. It sets uniform entry conditions for third-country nationals (valid travel document, visa where required, justification of purpose and means of subsistence, no SIS alert, no threat to public policy). It mandates systematic checks on all travellers — including EU citizens — against relevant databases, a requirement strengthened by Regulation (EU) 2017/458 after the 2015–2016 terrorist attacks in Europe.
• Absence of internal border controls. Article 22 establishes that internal borders may be crossed at any point without checks. However, Articles 25–35 allow temporary reintroduction of internal border controls in cases of a serious threat to public policy or internal security, normally for up to six months and exceptionally up to two years.

States including Germany, France, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Norway have repeatedly notified reintroduced controls since 2015, citing secondary migration flows, terrorism, and later the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court of Justice of the EU, in Landespolizeidirektion Steiermark (C-368/20 and C-369/20, 26 April 2022), ruled that the same threat cannot justify successive prolongations beyond the maximum periods without a new substantial threat.

A 2024 amendment (Regulation (EU) 2024/1717) revised the rules on internal-border reintroduction and added a framework for responding to the instrumentalisation of migrants, partly in response to events at the Belarus–Poland border from 2021. The SBC operates alongside the Schengen Information System, the Visa Code, and the Common European Asylum System.