this video was brought to you by brilliant the shangan area is perhaps the European Union's greatest achievement it's a border-free area comprising 29 European countries allowing for the free movement of hundreds of millions of citizens and the effective functioning of a single Market however this Spirit of solidarity has come under threat recently member states are currently reestablishing border controls due to anxiety about immigration and security threats with Germany becoming the latest to do so and some MEPS are even trying to expel member states with unpalatable migration regimes especially hungry so in this video we'll explain what's going on with the shenan area why it doesn't seem too working anymore and what might happen [Music] next before we start if you're interested in global alliances and groupings like shenen then you might like our brand new poster every Alliance explains which shows in slightly confusing detail how every country interacts with each other it's available by clicking the link in the description and for a limited time you can get 20% off with code shenen to begin with it's probably worth explaining a little more about what the shenan area is and where it came from the principle of free movement has long been key to the European project with the 1957 Treaty of Rome containing provisions on free movement between member countries at the time these applied to working Europeans and gave them the freedom to settle and work in any member state but fell short of dismantling border controls between countries then in 1985 a breakthrough agreement between five of the 10 eec member states was signed near a Luxembourg Village called shenen proposing the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders a supplementary convention signed in 1990 proposed the complete abolition of internal border controls and the establishment of a common Visa policy this agreement entered into force in 1995 and was incorporated into EU law by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1999 nowadays the shenan area encompasses the entire EU except for Cyprus and Ireland which has an opt out but it also includes four non-eu member states Iceland Norway Switzerland and lichenstein plus there's also Monaco San Marino and the Vatican City micro states that aren't shenan members but affect operate as if they are under EU law shenen member states are allowed to temporarily reintroduce border controls in the event of a serious threat to public policy or internal security provided it is a last resort measure and an exceptional situation now at first temporary controls in response to specific challenges may not seem like that big of a deal but in a significant number of cases these controls are becoming The New Normal undermining the shenen area six countries in particular have been effectively continually extending these temporary measures since around 2015 these temporary restrictions have also become increasingly popular at the time of writing border controls have been temporarily reintroduced in Austria Denmark France Italy Norway Slovenia Sweden and perhaps most notably Germany which imposed some new restrictions earlier this week so why is shenen coming under strain well as we see it there are at least three reasons migration crime and hungary's new guest worker program for Russians and bellerians let's start with immigration though now to be clear we're not saying that high levels of immigration are bad but it's just a fact that many European governments have reacted to high migration Levels by reimposing national borders the most recent instance of this came earlier this week when German Chancellor Olaf Schult made Headlines by announcing plans to impose tighter land border controls on the country's borders with po chuia Switzerland and Austria while this was nominally a response to a terror attack in August claimed by the Islamic State it's also at least tacitly a reaction to Rising migrant skeptic sentiment in Germany this month the alternative for Germany or afd party who are probably the most migrant skeptic party in Germany having previously advocated for a Net Zero migration policy and a massive increase in deportations won elections in the Eastern State of turingia and just missed out on Victory in Saxony 2 the other two parties who performed well in those elections the Sara vagen connect Alliance and the Christian democrats are also relatively migrant skeptic the Christian democrats leader for instance has come out against accepting any more Syrian or Afghan refugees and suggested that Germany should copy the UK's Rwanda scheme while SAR Varan connect has emerged as a vocal opponent to Germany's merera Refugee policy claiming that new arrivals are draining the welfare state because of the role that Germany has historically played in absorbing European migrants and because of its Geographic centrality Schultz's decision will put more strain on shenen Austria has already said that it will refuse to take back any migrants refused at the German border while the Polish prime minister called Berlin's decision unacceptable and demanded urgent consultations a spokesperson for the Czech Ministry of interior warned that Germany's border control extensions would also have a domino effect on checks throughout shenen presumably referring to the fact if Austria refuses to accept refugees turned away at the German border Germany's other neighbors including czechia Slovakia Hungary Slovenia Switzerland Croatia and maybe even France will probably do the same paving the way for a total collapse of shenen anyway the second strain on shenen is crime an increasing number of states have already reimposed border restrictions over the past few years due to escalating concerns regarding organized crossborder crime with the most recent tension coming in the Nordic countries according to Danish Justice Minister criminal groups have hired teenagers from Sweden to commit crimes on Danish territory in some 25 occasions in the last 4 months in response the Danish government have started talking about closing the Denmark Sweden border where the main border crossing is the orison bridge which has been open since 2001 it's a similar story in Norway too where the government recently discovered Swedish gangs operating in every region shutting the borders wouldn't be entirely unprecedented either something similar happened in 2019 when Denmark imposed temporary border controls after two Swedish Nationals set off a bomb outside the Danish tax agency finally the last strain worth mentioning is hungary's New National card program which offers a 2-year residence permit to individuals from specific countries who work in Hungary and was recently extended to Russians and bellerians ands surprisingly this hasn't gone down well with the rest of Europe who argue that it could provide a loophole for Russian spies on top of this Hungary signaled last week that it is serious about giving its unwanted immigrants free one-way travel to Brussels a measure meant to pressure the European commission into dropping heavy fines imposed on Budapest over its restrictive Asylum policies because of these recent actions MEPS have urged the European commission to introduce new border controls at hungary's Borders or even to expel Hungary from The shenan Zone altogether ultimately these challenges represent a growing sense among European countries that the eu's approach to free movement and migration isn't working as desired and Shen's future ultimately depends on an effective reform of The eu's Wider migration policy with issues like these it's often hard to come to the right conclusions so if you want to improve your decision making you'll want to check out brilliant brilliant is where you learn by doing with thousands of interactive lessons in maths data analysis programming and AI for instance there's the scientific thinking course which takes you on an interactive tour of our physical world you'll engage with key scientific principles and theories from simple machines like gears and pulley to Einstein's special theory of relativity it's not just a bunch of lectures either you'll learn by doing with Hands-On lessons that will have you comparing circuits to understand voltage and current playing snooker to learn the rules of collision planning your itinery for an Intergalactic music Festival on a space time diagram and more that way you'll build your natural intuition while gaining deep knowledge of scientific principles find out more and try everything brilliant has to offer for a full 30 Days by visiting brilliant.org slodr or by clicking the link in the description that way you'll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription thanks for your support and thanks to brilliant for sponsoring this video