The EconomistAugust 22nd 2020 Europe 45I
n summer monthsa common enemy stalks Europe’s motor-
ways: the Dutch caravan. With four times more caravans per
head than the European average, the Netherlands’ holidaying fam-
ilies are the nemeses of other vacation-bound drivers. But this year
there are fewer of them. Normally 9m Dutch—slightly over half the
population—head abroad for a holiday, mostly to southern Eu-
rope. Barely half that number said they would bother this time
round, as covid-19 scuppered their usual plans. (In an unscientific
poll earlier this month, Charlemagne spotted one lonely Dutch
caravan during a five-hour drive from the Dordogne to Paris.)
Staying home for the summer is part of a new reality for Euro-
peans used to zipping across borders as they please. In normal
times, the eu’s Schengen area extends across 26 countries both in-
side and outside the eu, allowing people to go from Lisbon to Tal-
linn without showing a passport. In pandemic times, however, the
eu’s cherished passport-free zone is under threat.
The absence of border checks across much of Europe is among
the most tangible effects of euintegration. The Schengen agree-
ment was reached 35 years ago between Belgium, France, Germany,
Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It now stretches across the con-
tinent—or at least it did. As soon as the covid-19 crisis struck, bor-
ders slammed shut. Checks are still in force in a handful of coun-
tries. Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, put the situation
bluntly during a crisis meeting in spring: “The risk we are facing is
the death of Schengen.” He was right to worry, but not so much be-
cause of the obvious benefits of passport-free travel as because of
the zone’s deeper significance.
Schengen may be one of the eu’s greatest achievements, but
only a minority of Europeans use it. Just a third of eucitizens take a
foreign holiday in a given year, by far the most common reason for
travel abroad. Domestic travel feels like an imposition for vitamin
d-deprived Dutch, but it is the norm for most Europeans. Indeed,
40% say they never leave their own country at all. Those who cross
borders daily make up an even smaller proportion. Only a tiny mi-
nority—about 2m out of 440m, clustered in a few places, such as
Slovakia and Luxembourg—cross a border to go to work. For most
people, Schengen is either rarely used or irrelevant.
For a project often referred to as the “jewel in the crown” byproudeupoliticians, Schengen is rather cheap. Economically, the
absence of passport checks within the bloc is not worth much.
Wonks suggest the reintroduction of border controls within the eu
would cost €5bn-18bn ($6bn-21.5bn), a small slice of the union’s
€15trn economy. By contrast, the single market is estimated to have
added 9% to eu gdpsince its inception. Complicated just-in-time
supply chains can survive passport checks, as Britain demon-
strated when it was within the club but outside the Schengen area.
It is Britain’s departure from the eu’s single market and customs
union that will provide business with a logistical nightmare.
Perhaps passport-free travel looms large in the minds of Euro-
crats because they are the ones who benefit most from it. The euis
about making it easier for people to move, even if most people do
not bother. By contrast, in Brussels they generally do: the capital’s
well-paid polyglots flit across the continent constantly, for work
and pleasure. Borders have always had an outsized significance for
the eu’s movers and shakers, going back to its founding fathers. Al-
cide De Gasperi, Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman, the cru-
cial Italian, German and French statesmen during the club’s cre-
ation, all hailed from their country’s borderlands, which had
meandered with history. But that leads to a distorted picture of
everyday life for most Europeans.
Schengen’s actual significance stems not so much from what it
offers as from what it requires. It is the obligations of Schengen
that are forging the euinto something resembling a state. This is
most obvious at the union’s external borders. When covid-19 hit,
member states had to come up with a common list of which
non-eucitizens were allowed in. There is little point in one coun-
try banning, say, Brazilians, if an arrival from Rio de Janeiro can
simply fly into a neighbouring country and nip over the border. An
absence of internal checks requires stringent checks at the fron-
tier. This lesson was learned painfully during the migration crisis
that began in 2015, when 1m refugees streamed in from the Middle
East and north Africa. In response, Europe established a standing
corps of euborder and coast guards—officers with guns and eu
flags determining who can come into a member country. It should
be ready by next year. As euwallahs debate whether the recent
move to issue common debt constitutes a “Hamiltonian moment”,
it is helpful to recall that the former Treasury secretary founded
America’s coast guard, too.We’re (not) all going on a summer holiday
Even if few people use it on a day-to-day basis, the symbolic power
of passport-free travel is unmatched. Half the countries in the eu
have experienced authoritarian regimes within living memory.
For citizens threatened by dictatorships, the freedom to move also
means the precious freedom to leave. If that right is at the mercy of
a man in a uniform at a border post, it feels diluted.
Yet ultimately, Schengen is a symptom. When the eustruggles,
so does Schengen. Borders stay open only when countries trust fel-
low eu members to deal with internal problems, be they terrorism
or disease. Other pieces of European integration are not so flexible.
(It is easy to install temporary checks on the Italian-French border;
it would be impossible to reintroduce the lira temporarily.) The re-
emergence of borders within the Schengen area would not be
disastrous, but it would be annoying. More important, when eu
countries let people cross their borders freely, they are displaying a
fundamental confidence in their neighbours. A convoy of Dutch
caravans slowly winding their way to southern France would be a
sign of a union in fine fettle. Cheer before you honk. 7Charlemagne Why Europeans love Schengen
The passport-free zone is important, but not for the reasons many think