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Schengen Snapshot 2025 // The EU’s ‘long-term’ migration strategy /// Significant activity on digital border regime /// Update on Visa Facilitation Agreement with Armenia /// Visa restrictions for Georgian diplomats (and maybe citizens)

Schengen Snapshot 2025

An internal EU report obtained by Statewatch offers an update on efforts to strengthen border and immigration controls in the Schengen area in the first half of 2025.

The Schengen Barometer+ report (pdf) is produced twice a year by the European Commission and provides a ‘health check’ for the Schengen area – the zone of 25 EU states and four non-EU member states in which internal borders have supposedly been abolished.

Overall, the report reflects a desire to step up the anti-migrant policy agenda pursued by European policymakers in recent years – more deportations, more surveillance and more militarisation of borders.

A full analysis of the document is available on the Statewatch site.

The EU’s ‘long-term’ migration strategy: more of the same

A presentation (pdf) outlining the EU’s ‘Long-term European Asylum and Migration Management Strategy’ was presented to a meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Counsellors (a working group of the Council of the EU) on 12 January 2026.

The presentation contains few surprises, but presents a reasonably comprehensive overview of the strategy’s six priority areas, which are described as:

• Migration diplomacy

• Strong EU borders

• A fair, firm and adaptable asylum and migration system

• Returns and readmission

• Legal pathways and labour mobility

• Strategic use of financial resources and enhancing operational support

It is noteworthy that:

• The report mentions as a priority the ‘finalisation of (deportation agreement) negotiations with Nigeria and Kazakhstan’.

• In what might be either a drafting error or deliberate, under ‘migration diplomacy’, the word “reduce” in reference to irregular migration has been struck through, replaced with “prevent”.

Significant activity on digital border regime in second half of 2025

In the latter half of 2025 there was a lot of activity and discussion in the Council of the EU’s various working parties regarding the EU’s new digital border regime. Documents reporting on discussions suggest potential synergies between internal and external border management.

EU Digital Travel application regulation

The presidency’s compromise proposal (pdf) for the EU Digital Travel application regulation

was discussed in the meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Counsellors on 13 November 2025. An impact assessment, executive summary and regulatory scrutiny board opinion (all pdfs) of the regulation have also been published.

The regulation concerns itself with digitalising the system for visa applicants (typically short-stay) and crossings at the EU’s external borders. A full analysis of the overall project of digitalising the Schengen area’s borders, albeit from some years before the application was proposed, is available on the Statewatch site.

There is a general emphasis on migration as a security risk and the liberal use of biometric databases such as facial recognition. Also of note within the proposed regulation and accompanying documents are:

The potential impact on externalisation of enshrining a system of visa pre-check before people travel:

"The EU initiative… offers the opportunity to improve the travel experience for individual travellers and increase security by enabling border authorities to carry out checks in advance and in a new way, based on digital data in travel documents submitted by travellers before they travel."

This system enhances the EU’s ability to screen and reject people before they are able to travel. In light of the current policy agenda regarding Safe Third Countries and Safe Countries of Origin, such a tool may prove useful in the future for pre-rejecting people from countries the EU expects asylum applicants to travel from.

The potential for ‘home-grown’ digital systems to be exported to other countries:

"…the proposal contributes to the further development of European integrated border management by introducing uniform standards for managing external borders more effectively and efficiently."

In implementing a large-scale interoperable system, the EU Digital Travel application may serve as a proof of concept for application in other areas. Given the EU’s tendency to push its border solutions on third countries, it could be imagined that such a system could feature in future externalisation partnerships. (See also ‘EMWP delegates reportedly discussed exporting digital visa systems’ in the ‘Other’ section of this bulletin)

Update on Visa Facilitation Agreement with Armenia

A note from the Commission to the Council's Visa Working Party (pdf) for a meeting on 19 September 2025 sums up the current status of visa cooperation between Armenia and the EU. It reports a perception in Armenia that some member states deliberately avoid applying the visa facilitation rules in order to issue refusals. In that light, the Commission stated that disclosure of the document “would undermine the protection of the public interest as regards international relations” when Statewatch requested it.

Visa restrictions for Georgian diplomats (and maybe citizens)

In January 2025, the EU announced it would suspend visa-free travel for diplomats from Georgia. Throughout the year, as perceived “democratic backsliding” continued, EU member states have urged more concrete action, potentially suspending visa-free travel for all Georgian citizens, according to a Council presidency note to the Visa Working Party on 19 September 2025 (pdf).

The presidency invited delegates to consider their options for invoking the Visa Suspension Mechanism for some or all Georgian citizens. The questions point to continued debate on the issue in the Visa Working Party. This discussion is especially relevant given internal EU reporting that Georgian citizens rank high among people “illegally staying” in the EU and lodging “unfounded applications for international protection” (see the article on the ‘Schengen Barometer’ report).