English

Close cross-border relationships and interdependencies have developed in recent decades in the SaarLorLux border region, and these are crucially linked to the European integration process. However, it is also evident that further deepening of cross-border cooperation requires new impetus and can be hindered by nationalist-populist forces. Based on quantitative and qualitative surveys of municipal decision-makers conducted in 2024 in Saarland (Germany), département Moselle (France), and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, this Policy Paper provides an overview of six key areas of action, with corresponding policy recommendations. These areas are: (1) accelerating existing efforts in education and language; (2) reducing bureaucratic hurdles; (3) strengthening municipal competencies; (4) being closer to citizens; (5) adopting pragmatic procedures; and (6) enabling cross-border cooperation in all areas. Europe, and specifically the EU, stands for cooperation that transcends borders, but this requires significant commitment and appropriate opportunities.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement, the conference '40 Years of Schengen: People, Borders, Politics”, jointly organised by EMN Luxembourg and the UniGR-Center for Border Studies, of-fered a timely opportunity to celebrate European integration and critically analyse the evolving realities of border governance. Focusing on the free movement of people in border regions, particularly in the SaarLorLux area, the conference examined the socio-economic interdependencies, legal and political challenges that have arisen from the reintroduction of internal border controls. Panels and roundtable reflected on the shifting dynamics at the internal and external margins of the Schengen area, where migration, security discourse and geopolitical crises are reconfigured the Schengen spirit. Participants called for a renewed commitment to the core values of solidarity, trust, and shared sovereignty, emphasising that the future of Schengen requires political will and citizen engagement. The conference reaffirmed Schengen as a lived reality and a symbol of European freedom, as well as a strategic asset in times of uncertainty.

Schengen countries are increasingly relying on the Schengen Borders Code to make internal borders less permeable. This Working Paper focuses on the ongoing reintroduction of temporary internal border controls within the EU between 2015 and 2024, as well as the justifications provided by Schengen countries for these measures. The analysis identifies four phases, reflecting a gradual displacement of the Schengen spirit—established 40 years ago—by a prevailing border spirit. While open borders and free movement remain guiding principles of the European Union, national border regimes are gaining ground and are continuously being adapted to fluctuating threat perceptions. Migration, terrorism, public health, and hybrid threats serve as discursive resources to legitimize a Schengen reality that can no longer be regarded as exceptional, but rather as part of a normalized, security-oriented European order. This trajectory is characterized by a re-nationalization of border policy within the EU, an ever-expanding rhetoric of crisis, political instrumentalization, and an ambivalent mode of EU border governance.

Since the mid-2010s at the latest, there has been discussion of the border as a complex phenomenon, aimed at a more comprehensive and differentiated understanding of b/orderings. However, there seems to be an imprecise use of the term ‘complexity’ in the academic debate, and sometimes, still, an everyday understanding of complexity prevails. To sharpen the debate around a border’s complexity, in this comment, in a first step, I show what border scholars currently consider complex and question which analytical and conceptual developments in the wake of the bordering turn have encouraged the increasing talk of complex borders. In the second step, I suggest how border research can be inspired by complexity theories, in focusing on performative interrelations and their emergent dis/orders that become spatially and socially effective.