section_path: History/Schengen Agreement
section_name: Schengen Agreement
paragraph_text: Schengen Agreement
  
  The first move towards the abolition of border controls between EC member states took place on 14 June 1985 with the signing of the Schengen Agreement by five EEC members – the Benelux countries as well as France and West Germany – of the then ten EEC member states. These five countries entered into the Schengen Agreement separately from the European Communities, because consensus could not be reached among all EEC member states.
  
  The Agreement was supplemented in 1990 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 continued to be separate from the EC structures, and led to the creation of the Schengen Area on 26 March 1995.
  
  As more EU member states signed the Schengen Agreement, consensus 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 or regulation is made within its processes, in which the non-EU members are not participants.
  
  The UK, the Crown Dependencies, and the Republic of Ireland have operated a Common Travel Area (CTA) since 1923 (with passport-free travel and freedom of movement with each other), but the UK would not abolish border controls with any other countries and therefore opted out of the Agreement. While not signing the Schengen Treaty, the Republic of Ireland has always looked more favourably on joining, but has not done so in order to maintain the CTA and its open border with Northern Ireland.