You can cross most of the EU without a passport or border checks.
The EU is creating an area of freedom, security and justice. Once fully in place, it will cover issues like EU citizenship, personal mobility, asylum, immigration, visa policy and managing the EU’s external frontiers. It will also encourage close cooperation between national police, judicial and customs authorities. This area will ensure that laws which apply to EU citizens, visitors and immigrants from other parts of the world, as well as to criminals and terrorists, are uniformly implemented across the Union.
Guaranteeing fundamental rights
The European Union is based on respect for human rights, democratic institutions and the rule of law. Its Charter of Fundamental Rights sets out all the personal, civil, political, economic and social rights EU citizens enjoy. The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) helps policy-makers to make new laws and works to raise public awareness of fundamental rights.
The ‘Schengen agreement’ ensures the right to travel freely from one country to another. EU citizens no longer have to show their passports or identity cards when they enter another EU country. The only exceptions are the UK, Ireland (when entering from a country other than the UK), Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania.
The five million non-EU citizens currently working in the Union also enjoy important rights. Common procedures have been drawn up to cover family reunification and ways to integrate new arrivals into an unfamiliar environment.
Cooperation between judicial authorities
EU authorities work together to beat cross-border crime.
As people travel freely within the EU, it is important that they do not lose access to, or manage to escape from, justice. Cooperation has intensified between national judicial systems to ensure that legal decisions taken in one member country are recognised and implemented in another. These principles are especially important in civil proceedings concerning divorce, child custody, maintenance claims or even bankruptcy and unpaid bills, when the individuals involved live in different countries. The EU has established the European Judicial Network in order to improve judicial cooperation between the Member States in combating serious crimes such as corruption, drug trafficking and terrorism.
The European arrest warrant has replaced lengthy extradition procedures so that suspected or convicted criminals who have fled abroad can be swiftly returned to the country where they were, or will be, tried.
Managing asylum and immigration
As more people try to enter the Union to escape war, persecution and natural disasters, or to carve out a better future, EU governments are developing common solutions to shared challenges. Minimum standards and procedures are being drawn up for asylum seekers. These determine how and where applications should be processed, the status of people granted asylum and the role of national authorities in meeting these responsibilities.
EU leaders adopted a European pact on immigration and asylum in 2008, setting out the principles behind a number of EU laws. The aim is to organise legal immigration so that it takes account of the priorities and needs of each EU-country and encourages integration. The control of the EU's external borders will be made more effective. The EU is also striving to create partnerships with the countries of origin and of transit, in order to improve living conditions in the countries people might want to move away from.
The Union is determined to clamp down on illegal immigration. The Union created the Frontex agency in 2005 to organise operational cooperation between the EU countries in the field of external border security. Internal freedom of movement is only possible if there are effective and efficient controls at all points of entry into the EU.
Fighting crime throughout the EU
Guaranteeing the security of its citizens is one of the Union’s central priorities. This means using both practical and legislative weapons to prevent organised criminals such as drug barons, people traffickers, money launderers and terrorists from exploiting the freedoms the EU brings. On the practical front, national police forces are cooperating more, especially within the framework of Europol.
Legislation is being used to tackle money laundering. It allows the proceeds of crime to be confiscated and obliges financial institutions and professions such as accountants, lawyers and casino owners to report transactions worth €15 000 or more.
