The Schengen Area, created by the 1985 Schengen Agreement, abolished internal border checks among 29 participating countries and became a cornerstone of European integration. The Schengen Borders Code, as amended in May 2024, allows an exceptional reintroduction of internal checks. Although framed as temporary, these new provisions have real-world consequences for cross-border regions. Germany and the Netherlands are among the countries that have utilised this possibility, setting up controls within their borders at various times. Consequently, the research focuses on the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, a Euroregion within the Dutch, German, and Belgian borders. Spanning the Belgian provinces of Liège and Limburg, the Dutch province of Limburg, as well as Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Rheinland-Pfalz, this region boasts a considerable number of students, workers and tourists who traverse national borders on a daily basis relying on integrated transport networks and streamlined administrative practices.
These measures, though compliant with the revised Schengen Borders Code, interrupt the previously frictionless flow of people and goods. Therefore, our research assesses the impacts of the reintroduction of internal border controls around three main research themes: European integration, Socio-Economic Development and Euregional cohesion. Under these research themes, some related research questions were: are the measures proportionate and necessary under EU law, given the circumstances? How do local citizens perceive these new measures? Did the daily life of commuters, students, and businesses in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine change?
