The EU Commission will send coordinated teams to Finland to assess the implementation of the Schengen legislation. The review is expected to take place in May and June 2023.
Schengen legislation — it is a set of rules and regulations that make the functioning of the Schengen area possible. It regulates, among other things, the abolition of border controls at the internal borders of the Schengen member states, and is also aimed at strengthening border controls at external borders.
The Schengen Agreement was signed 38 years ago, but Finland joined it only later some time and began to fully implement the legislation in 2001.
Thus, Finland has been living under the Schengen laws for 22 years. However, in order to ensure that all rules are properly implemented, a check will be carried out.
The Finnish Ministry of the Interior explains that such assessments are carried out every seven years, and they cover all areas of the Schengen legislation – the Schengen Information System , external borders, police cooperation within the alliance, data protection and visa policy.
In addition to visits to various government offices in the Helsinki area, the assessment teams will also visit the eastern border, as well as make “sudden” visits to some places they chose themselves.
“The commission, in cooperation with the Finnish liaison officers, selected the sites to be included in the assessment. In addition, assessment teams may make unannounced visits to sites of their own choosing,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry also said that assessors will compile a list of deficiencies identified during the assessment, and in this case, Finland will be obliged to take immediate steps to eliminate them.
In addition, based on the report, the EU Commission will also issue recommendations and request an action plan to implement these recommendations.
B currently the Schengen area consists of 27 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland and Estonia.
