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The Schengen Area is the area comprising 26 European countries that have abolished passport and any other type of border control at their common borders, also referred to as internal borders. It mostly functions as a single country for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. The Area is named after the Schengen Agreement. Countries in the Schengen Area have eliminated border controls with the other Schengen members and strengthened border controls with non-Schengen states. Twenty-two of the twenty-eight European Union (EU) member states participate in the Schengen Area. Of the six EU members that do not form part of the Schengen Area, four – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania – are legally obliged and wish to join the area, while the other two – Ireland and the United Kingdom – maintain opt-outs. All four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – have signed the Schengen Agreement, even though they are outside the EU. In addition, three European microstates – Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City – can be considered as ''de facto'' within the Schengen Area, as they do not have border controls with the Schengen countries that surround them; but they have not officially signed documents that make them part of Schengen. Some national laws have the text "countries against which border control is not performed based on the Schengen Agreement and the 562/2006 EU regulation",〔(Passlag (1978:302) ) (in Swedish)〕 which then includes the microstates and other non-EU areas with open borders. The Schengen Area currently has a population of over 400 million people and an area of . == History == (詳細はEU member states in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg. The Schengen Area was established separately from the then European Community, when consensus could not be reached among all EC member states on the abolition of border controls. In 1990 the Agreement was supplemented by the Schengen Convention, which proposed the abolition of internal border controls and a common visa policy. The Agreements and the rules adopted under them were entirely separate from the EU structures, and led to the creation of the Schengen Area on 26 March 1995. As more EU member states signed the Schengen Agreement, agreement was reached on absorbing it into the procedures of the EU. The Agreement and its related conventions were incorporated into the mainstream of European Union law by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, which came into effect in 1999. A consequence of the Agreement being part of European law is that any amendment and regulation is made within its processes, in which the non-EU members are not participants. The UK and Ireland could not accept abolishing border controls, and were given a full opt-out from the area. The Nordic members required Norway and Iceland to be included, which was accepted, and so a consensus could be reached. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Schengen Area」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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