Crises Have Not Broken Schengen but Transformed It, Markéta Votoupalová Shows in Leading Journal JCMS

How has the Schengen area survived the refugee crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? A new article by Markéta Votoupalová of the Department of International and Diplomatic Studies at FIR VŠE, published in the leading international journal JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, sets out to answer this question.

Markéta Votoupalová has long researched the Schengen area, the zone of passport-free travel covering most of Europe. In her new article, Unyielding Resilience of the Schengen Area: Adapting to Crises in a Transforming World, she examines how EU institutions have responded to the crises that have threatened free movement since 2015, and how they have talked about them.

From “Applying Schengen” to “Amending Schengen”

The article focuses on three major shocks: the 2015 refugee crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It draws on the Discourse-Historical Approach, a method that analyses how politicians and institutions speak about a problem and how their language evolves over time, combined with conceptual history, which traces how the meaning of key concepts changes.

The analysis reveals a shift in the EU’s strategy itself. Early on, the message was “saving Schengen by applying Schengen”; later, the approach of “saving Schengen by amending Schengen” took over. Rather than simply insisting on the existing rules, the EU began gradually changing them.

Resilience Through Gradual Change

According to Votoupalová, Schengen’s resilience rests on gradual institutional adaptation. The EU has strengthened its own authority while also giving Member States more control. This combination of seemingly opposite moves has held the system together.

Successive crises have therefore not undermined Schengen. Instead, they have contributed to its continuing transformation, allowing free movement in Europe to keep working in a rapidly changing world.

The article builds on Votoupalová’s earlier research, which she discussed in the interview The Schengen Area is Changing: Free Movement Gives Way to a Security Focus.

The article is available open access: Read the full article