This is an article for those interested in what's changed in the map of the Schengen Area since our previous update in 2020. From now on, you can always find the latest version of this map in our Schengen zone explainer article.
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| Three southeastern European countries - Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria - have joined the Schengen Area in recent years. Map by Evan Centanni, from blank map by Ssolbergj. License: CC BY-SA |
Schengen Zone Still Growing
Though it's taken a bit of a beating in recent years, Europe's massive free-travel area is still very much a thing - in fact, it's still getting bigger, with Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania all joining since we last updated PolGeoNow's Schengen zone map in 2020. And it's not likely going to stop there either...
As readers of our Schengen Area explainer article know, the zone is a project of the broader European Union (EU), but includes some countries that aren't in the EU, and excludes some that are. It's also different from the overlapping "Eurozone", which is the area where the euro currency is used as money (also a project of the EU).
Theoretically, the "Schengen Agreement" that created the area treats all the member countries as one big, unified country for the purpose of travel, with no ID checks at the borders between them. That also means that permission to enter one of them automatically grants permission to enter any of them. However, over the last decade it's become common for some member countries to set up off-and-on border checks, based on their questionable use of a Schengen rule allowing temporary exceptions.
Still, that hasn't stopped more countries from jumping on board. Most EU member countries are obligated to eventually join Schengen, and the remaining ones haven't been dragging their feet either.
2023: Croatia Joins the Schengen Area
The first of the recent additions to the Schengen Area was southeastern Europe's Republic of Croatia, just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. Croatia had joined the European Union ten years earlier - and just twenty years before that, had still been fighting a bloody war for independence from Yugoslavia. ID checks at Croatia's land borders with Schengen members Slovenia and Hungary were officially ended on January 1, 2023.
Similar checks for boats and ships arriving from other Schengen countries were dropped at the same time as the ones for the land borders. But for flights arriving to Croatian airports from other Schengen countries, the end of immigration-focused ID checks on passengers was delayed until March 26 of that year for technical reasons (airlines flying within Schengen still check passports or ID cards, but theoretically only for basic security reasons, not for controlling who travels where within the zone).
Because Croatia is also the most recent country to have joined the broader EU*, you could say that it skipped to the front of the Schengen membership line, ahead of longer-time EU members Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Romania. That's possible because each incoming member has to separately convince all the existing members that it's already adopted Schengen-certified systems and best practices - including strong immigration controls along its non-Schengen borders - before being allowed in.
At the same time Croatia joined the Schengen Area, it also became part of the Eurozone, retiring its national currency in favor of the euro. Both the end of border checks and the adoption of a common currency were seen as a convenience advantage for the tourism that makes up a big part of the country's economy.
Learn More: Map of the EU's "Eurozone" currency area
*Though no new member country has joined the EU since Croatia, the union has expanded slightly: In 2014, one of France's overseas territories came newly under the organization's authority.
2024-2025: Bulgaria and Romania Join Schengen
Soon after Croatia's entry into the Schengen Area, two of the remaining three pre-Schengen EU member countries managed to catch up: Romania and the Republic of Bulgaria, both also in Europe's southeast, ended border controls with the rest of the Schengen Area - and each other - in a two-phase process starting in early 2024.
On March 31, 2024, ID checks were dropped for boats and ships traveling between Bulgaria, Romania, and other Schengen countries, while efforts to check the legal status of air travelers on flights between them were also set to end (however, as mentioned above, flight passengers' IDs still get checked in the name of other security requirements). Finally, ID checks at Bulgaria and Romania's land borders with Hungary, Greece, and each other were ended on January 1, 2025.
Though they joined the free-travel zone later than Croatia, the two new Schengen countries had been members of the broader EU since five years before Croatia, in 2007. And in fact, EU officials certified them ready to join Schengen all the way back in 2011, before Croatia even joined the union. However, their entry into the free travel area was blocked for almost 15 years by other EU countries, particularly Austria and the Netherlands.
The governments of both the Netherlands and Austria argued that Bulgaria and Romania hadn't proven themselves good enough at blocking illegal immigration into Europe, while the Netherlands also argued that "corruption and organized crime in both countries" would compromise their management of border security at the Schengen Area's new outer edges. The Netherlands finally dropped its objection in December 2023, and Austria gave the final green light in November 2024 (it had earlier agreed only to the integration of Bulgarian and Romanian seaports and airports).
Schengen Land Bridge to Greece
Before Bulgaria and Romania joined, the country of Greece had been separated from the rest of the Schengen Area except by sea and air travel (a "semi-exclave"). So the two new member's addition connected Greece for the first time to the network of supposedly free-travel land routes joining all other Schengen members except island countries Iceland and Malta (a bridge connects Sweden and Denmark).
We say "supposedly" because right now, the Schengen Area is in fact divided into many pieces by borders where countries have declared the right to enforce "temporary" border controls, in some cases already extended for many years now. It's unclear how consistently each country is actually checking IDs at these borders, but travelers are warned to be prepared for it at any time.
Continued Expansion: What's the Next Schengen Country?
Among the European Union's current members, there are just two countries left that aren't part of the Schengen Area: Ireland and Cyprus. Ireland is one of the oldest EU members, but because of a complicated situation at its land border with the UK, it was allowed to "opt out" of planning to eventually join Schengen. And while anything could happen in the more distant future, for now Ireland still has no plans to merge with the area.
Meanwhile, the island Republic of Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, has had its Schengen prospects complicated by the fact that a large part of its claimed territory is controlled by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The Northern Cyprus government doesn't recognize EU authority, so Schengen membership for Cyprus the EU member would controversially require setting up new restrictions on crossing between the two major parts of the island.
However, leaders in the south are now pushing forward with a bid to join Schengen anyway, even though not much has changed with Northern Cyprus. The Cyprus government has been making progress towards meeting the technical requirements for Schengen members, and says it thinks it can get into the free-travel zone next year. If that happens, it's unclear what will happen to the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which make up a non-EU territory of the UK that's also on the island. Currently, they have mostly-open borders with the Republic of Cyprus, meaning that if Cyprus joins Schengen, they'll have to either become connected into Schengen (officially or not) or face new, much more restrictive border arrangements.
Beyond Member Countries: The Case of Gibraltar
If the Akrotiri and Dhekelia territory ends up as a special extension of the Schengen Area, it probably won't be the only UK territory to gain that status: A deal was reached last month for Gibraltar, a British territory connected by a tiny land border to Schengen member Spain, to open its borders to the free-travel area in the near future. Gibraltar's land border with Spain has never been completely open in recent history, but a tradition of easy border checks there has come under threat since 2020. That's when the UK's departure from the European Union (the event known as "Brexit") took Gibraltar along with it, despite Gibraltarians voting almost unanimously in favor of staying.
See Also: Photos of Gibraltar during the Brexit referendum campaigns
If the new agreement is implemented, Gibraltar will soon be treated as if it were part of the Schengen Area as far as most travelers are concerned. ID checks for crossing between Gibraltar and Spain will end, and people arriving in Gibraltar by sea or air will need to be approved by Spanish officials to enter the Schengen Area (with an exception for the British military). Still, the territory isn't officially joining Schengen - Gibraltar's own government will stay in charge of who can immigrate to the territory, and won't be subject to police cooperation requirements or EU court jurisdiction like actual Schengen member countries are.
Still - though the details aren't 100% clear - it sounds like visitors to Gibraltar will be treated as if they're in the Schengen Area for almost all other purposes - staying there will even count towards the 90-day Schengen tourist limit for UK citizens, unless they're also legal residents of Gibraltar itself. The result could be kind of similar to the tiny countries of Monaco, Vatican City, and San Marino, which are indistinguishable from the official Schengen Area to most travelers, even though their governments aren't officially integrated into it.
The new Gibraltar deal is several steps away from final approval still, and it's not clear when it would be implemented. There will likely be a push to get it done soon though, because the EU's new electronic passport control system is expected to end any lax treatment for people who need to cross back and forth between Spain and Gibraltar on a daily basis. The current plan is for that system to be phased in starting in October 2025.
Farther Out: Could more countries join Schengen after Cyprus?
If Cyprus does become part of the Schengen Area soon, that won't leave any more countries on the official list of future members. But that doesn't mean it's actually the end. There are nine countries officially in the waiting area for membership in the broader European Union, each of which would probably be required to start working towards joining Schengen too once it becomes an EU member. While some aren't really making progress towards joining the EU right now, others are: The one that's completed the most steps towards it is the small southeastern European country of Montenegro, which is hoping to become part of the EU in 2028.
Learn More: Which Countries are in the European Union, Which Aren't, and Which Want to Join?
Correction (July 28, 2025): This article originally stated that Croatia had still been fighting its war of independence just ten years before it became an EU member. It was actually 20 years before (we accidentally missed a decade).