The Schengen Area is the area comprising 26 European

countries that have abolished passport and any other type

of border control at their common borders, also referred to
as internal borders. It mostly functions as a single country
for international travel purposes, with a common visa
policy. The Area is named after the Schengen Agreement.
Countries in the Schengen Area have eliminated internal
border controls with the other Schengen members, and
strengthened external border controls with non-Schengen
states. The Schengen area encourages the free
movement of goods, information, money and people.
Twenty-two of the twenty-eight European Union (EU)
member states participate in the Schengen Area. Of the
six EU members that do not form part of the Schengen
Area, four Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus andRomania are
legally obliged and wish to join the area, while the other
two Ireland and the United Kingdom maintain opt-outs.
All four European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member
states - Iceland,Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland have signed the Schengen Agreement, even though they
are outside the EU. In addition three European
microstates Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican can
be considered as de facto within the Schengen Area as
they do not have border controls with the Schengen
countries that surround them; but they have not officially
signed documents that make them part of Schengen. The
Schengen Area currently has a population of over
400 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square
kilometres (1,664,911 sq mi).[1]