Schengen vs. EU vs. Europe: the three Europes explained

You've probably heard someone say, at some point, “I'm travelling around Europe” and then follow up with “well, actually, just the Schengen parts.” Or maybe you've seen a friend post from Reykjavík and wondered: is Iceland in the EU? Is it in Schengen? Is Iceland even in Europe? Is it all of those things at once?

Europe, the European Union, the Schengen Area, and the eurozone are four different concepts that overlap in maddeningly inconsistent ways. Travelers constantly mix them up — and so do newspapers, policy wonks, and even official government documents when they're in a hurry. The United Kingdom was in the EU but never in Schengen. Norway is in Schengen but has never been in the EU. Switzerland is in Schengen too but uses its own currency. Iceland is in Schengen and uses its own currency and isn't in the EU. Ireland is in the EU but skipped Schengen. And Bulgaria and Romania, which have been in the EU since 2007, only joined Schengen for air and sea borders in 2024.

This guide untangles all of it. We walk through Europe the continent, the EU as a political project, the Schengen Area as a border-free travel zone, and the eurozone as a currency area — then show exactly which countries are in which, and why. By the end you'll know the difference between “Europe,” “the EU,” and “Schengen,” and you'll never have to guess again whether your next trip is inside the free-movement zone.

The short answer: three things

There are three different things, and they overlap but don't match:

• Europe is a continent — a geographical region containing roughly 44 to 50 countries, depending on where you draw the line in the Caucasus. Some European countries have nothing to do with the EU (Belarus, Russia) or Schengen (UK).
• The European Union (EU) is a political union of 27 member states with shared institutions, a single market, and common laws. The UK was one of them until January 31, 2020.
• The Schengen Area is a passport-free travel zone. As of 2024, it includes 25 EU member states plus 4 non-EU members (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland). Two EU members (Ireland and Cyprus) are not in Schengen.

The key thing to hold in your head is that being in the EU and being in Schengen are two separate decisions. A country can be in one without being in the other. The map below shows how the overlap plays out in practice.

Europe (the continent)

We covered Europe in detail in our guide to the 7 continents, but here's the quick version: Europe is the second-smallest continent, at roughly 10.18 million square kilometers, and home to about 748 million people. It holds somewhere between 44 and 50 countries, depending on whether you include Russia, Turkey, and the three South Caucasus states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia).

The crucial thing to understand is that “being European” in the geographic sense has almost no relationship to being in the European Union. Countries that are unambiguously European but not in the EU include:

• United Kingdom — left the EU in January 2020 after the 2016 Brexit referendum. Still unambiguously European.
• Switzerland — European geographically and culturally, but has never been an EU member. Voted against joining the European Economic Area in 1992.
• Norway — applied for EU membership twice (in 1972 and 1994) and rejected it in referendums both times. Still deeply integrated with the EU through the European Economic Area.
• Iceland — applied for EU membership in 2009 after its banking crisis, then withdrew the application in 2015.
• Russia — European by geography (at least the western three-quarters of its population) but has never been remotely close to EU membership. Expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022 following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
• Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus — eastern European states; Ukraine and Moldova became EU candidate countries in June 2022, but negotiations are in early stages.
• Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia — the Western Balkans, all either candidates or potential candidates for EU membership. None currently in.
• Turkey — a formal EU candidate since 1999, with negotiations that have been effectively frozen for years.

So when you say “Europe,” you're talking about a geographical region that's much bigger than the 27-member European Union.

The European Union

The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states — an international organization unlike any other in the world. Its members pool sovereignty in certain areas (trade policy, competition law, agricultural policy, parts of justice and home affairs), share a single internal market, and (for most members) a common currency. The EU has its own parliament, its own court, its own executive (the European Commission), and its own passport design that member state passports incorporate.

A very short history

The EU's origin story begins with a 1951 treaty signed in Paris, which created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) — an agreement between six founding countries (France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) to pool their coal and steel industries under a common authority.^[1] The explicit goal was to make another European war economically impossible by tying the Franco-German steel industries together.

In 1957, the same six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, creating the European Economic Community (EEC) — a broader agreement establishing a common market. Over the next four decades the community grew and deepened:

• 1973: First enlargement. The UK, Ireland, and Denmark joined.
• 1981: Greece joined.
• 1986: Spain and Portugal joined.
• 1993: The Treaty of Maastricht transformed the EEC into the European Union, introducing the three- “pillars” structure that governed the EU until the Lisbon Treaty in 2009.
• 1995: Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined, bringing membership to 15.
• 2004: The “big bang” enlargement. Ten countries joined simultaneously: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
• 2007: Bulgaria and Romania joined.
• 2013: Croatia joined — the newest member.
• 2020: The United Kingdom left, following the 2016 Brexit referendum and years of withdrawal negotiations. The UK formally exited on January 31, 2020.

As of writing, the EU has 27 member states. No country has joined since Croatia in 2013, making the gap between the last enlargement and today one of the longer periods of standstill in the EU's history.

The four freedoms

The EU's single market is based on the famous “four freedoms”: the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. Citizens of any EU member state have the right to live, work, study, and retire in any other EU member state without needing a visa or work permit. This isn't exactly the same thing as Schengen — Schengen is about passport control at borders, while free movement is about residency rights — but they usually travel together and many people conflate them.

Current candidates

Countries currently negotiating or recognized as candidates for EU membership include:^[2]

• Albania
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Moldova
• Montenegro
• North Macedonia
• Serbia
• Turkey (frozen since 2016)
• Ukraine (since 2022)
• Georgia (since 2023)

Kosovo is a “potential candidate” — the EU recognizes it as wanting to join but hasn't formally granted candidate status, because five EU members don't recognize Kosovo as a country.

The Schengen Area

The Schengen Area is a zone of 29 European countries that have abolished internal border controls. Travelers crossing from one Schengen country into another face no passport check — it's like crossing a state line in the United States. Driving from Germany to France, you just drive; there's no booth, no guard, no stamp.

The Schengen Area is separate from the European Union — four of its members (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) aren't in the EU at all, and two EU members (Ireland and Cyprus) aren't in Schengen. They're parallel tracks that happen to overlap heavily.

A short history

The Schengen Agreement was signed on June 14, 1985, aboard a river boat on the Moselle near the tiny Luxembourgian village of Schengen — which is why the zone is named after a place with fewer than 600 residents.^[3] The original signatories were five EEC members (France, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). It took another ten years for the agreement to actually come into effect — in 1995, internal border checks were abolished between the signatories.

In 1997, the Treaty of Amsterdam incorporated Schengen into European Union law, meaning that from then on, every new EU member state was required to eventually join Schengen (with two specific opt-outs). Over the next two decades the area expanded to include most of Central and Eastern Europe, and in 2023 and 2024 it reached its current shape:

• January 1, 2023: Croatia joined Schengen, becoming the 27th member of the full area.
• March 31, 2024: Bulgaria and Romania joined Schengen for air and sea borders, bringing the partial count to 29. Land border controls between them and the rest of the area remain in place for now, though full integration is expected.

Who's in Schengen, and who's not

The current Schengen Area includes:

• 25 EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. (Bulgaria and Romania are partial for land borders as of 2024.)
• 4 non-EU members: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland. These four are part of Schengen because they're so deeply integrated with the EU economically that travelers crossing into them from a Schengen country would notice the border check as a step backward. The arrangement is governed by bilateral agreements signed between 1996 and 2008.

The two EU members not in Schengen are:

• Ireland. Ireland has a specific opt-out from Schengen, negotiated during the Amsterdam Treaty process, because it participates in the Common Travel Area with the United Kingdom (passport-free travel between the two). Since the UK was never in Schengen, joining would have meant putting border controls back between Ireland and the UK, which Ireland did not want.
• Cyprus. Cyprus is legally committed to joining Schengen, but hasn't yet, primarily because of the ongoing division of the island with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Full Schengen accession would require resolving the border question with Northern Cyprus, which is politically impossible under current conditions.

What Schengen means for travelers

The practical experience of Schengen, from a traveler's perspective, is:

• You enter the Schengen Area once, at your first point of arrival. If you fly from Bangkok to Amsterdam and then train onward to Berlin, you clear passport control in Amsterdam. Berlin doesn't check.
• Inside the area, you can move freely. No checks at land borders, no checks at train stations, no checks at domestic airports even when they're handling international flights.
• You leave the Schengen Area once, at your final point of departure. So if you fly Berlin → London, you clear Schengen exit at Berlin; if you then fly London → New York, you never re-enter the Schengen system.

There's one major catch for non-EU travelers: the 90/180-day rule. Visa-free visitors (and Schengen short-stay visa holders) can spend at most 90 days in the Schengen Area within any rolling 180-day window. This is counted across the entire zone, not per country — so spending 45 days in France and 45 days in Italy uses up your full 90 days. It resets on a rolling basis, not a calendar-year basis, which catches a lot of people off guard. Overstaying gets you banned from the Schengen Area for a period of time.

The eurozone (bonus set)

If three overlapping sets weren't confusing enough, there's a fourth: the eurozone, which is the set of countries that have adopted the euro as their official currency. As of 2024, there are 20 eurozone countries:

• Austria, Belgium, Croatia (joined 2023), Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.

Seven EU members are not in the eurozone: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. Denmark has a formal opt-out. Sweden has no opt-out but has consistently refused to join via popular vote. The rest are legally committed to joining eventually but haven't met the economic criteria or have political reasons for delay.

Separately, several non-EU countries use the euro officially through bilateral monetary agreements with the EU: Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, and Vatican City. They can even mint their own euro coins in small quantities for collectors.

And two countries — Kosovo and Montenegro — use the euro unilaterally, without any agreement. They adopted it because the German mark had been circulating informally before 2002, and switching to the euro was the cleanest transition. The EU isn't thrilled about unilateral adoption but can't do much about it.

The full country list by group

Here's a master table showing every European country (and the handful of non-EU Schengen members) and which sets they're in:

The pattern: most EU members are in both Schengen and the eurozone. A handful are in Schengen but not the eurozone (Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania). Two (Ireland, Cyprus) are in the EU and eurozone but not in Schengen. Four (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) are in Schengen only. The United Kingdom is in none of them anymore.

The microstates

Europe's five microstates — Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City — have individually weird relationships with the EU, Schengen, and the euro. Each one is different:

• Vatican City — not in the EU, not formally in Schengen, but uses the euro through a monetary agreement. De facto, there's no border control at all because the Vatican is surrounded by Rome. You walk in.
• San Marino — not in the EU, not in Schengen, uses the euro through a monetary agreement. De facto no border control because it's a tiny enclave inside Italy. You drive in.
• Monaco — not in the EU, not in Schengen, uses the euro. De facto integrated with France — no border control of any kind. You walk in from Nice in about the time it takes to get through a tunnel.
• Andorra — not in the EU, not in Schengen, uses the euro. Shares borders with France and Spain and has its own border control on each side. You may get a stamp.
• Liechtenstein — the most internationally-integrated microstate. Not in the EU, but in both the Schengen Area (since 2011) and the European Economic Area. Uses the Swiss franc as its currency. So it's in one treaty structure with Switzerland and another with the EU.

A note on the Council of Europe

One final thing to untangle, because it confuses everyone: the Council of Europe is not the same thing as the European Union. It's a separate international organization, founded in 1949 by the Treaty of London, based in Strasbourg, and focused on human rights and the rule of law.^[4]

The Council of Europe has 46 member states — considerably more than the EU's 27. Its most important institution is the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights across all 46 member states. The court's rulings apply to EU members and non-EU members alike: the UK, for example, is still under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights even though it left the EU.

Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022, shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Before that, it had been a member since 1996. Its expulsion means Russian citizens no longer have the right to petition the European Court of Human Rights for protection against actions by the Russian government — which is a genuinely significant consequence, even if it got overshadowed by the larger events of 2022.

In short: Council of Europe ≠ European Union ≠ Schengen Area ≠ eurozone. Four different things, all of them sometimes called “Europe” by people in a hurry.

What this means for travelers

For practical purposes, here's the short list of things a traveler should know:

• Passport required everywhere. Even inside Schengen, you're legally required to carry a valid passport or national ID card. The absence of border checks doesn't mean the absence of a requirement to identify yourself if a police officer asks.
• The 90/180 rule is rolling, not calendar-year. Non-EU citizens who enter visa-free can spend at most 90 days in Schengen in any rolling 180-day window — not 90 days per calendar year. This is counted at entry and exit points automatically. Overstaying by even one day can get you banned.
• Your Schengen entry is through your first country. If you fly Bangkok → Zurich → Paris, your passport is stamped in Zurich. Paris doesn't check. If you then fly Paris → London, you exit Schengen at Paris. London is not Schengen.
• Ireland and the UK use the Common Travel Area. These two countries maintain a separate passport-free zone between themselves (and the Crown Dependencies). Flights between Ireland and the UK are treated as domestic from an immigration perspective — you clear customs but not passport control.
• Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein use their own currencies. If you're used to spending euros throughout Schengen, be aware that these four use Swiss francs, Norwegian kroner, Icelandic króna, and (again) Swiss francs respectively. ATMs work fine; many places accept euros grudgingly but it's not the default.
• Denmark and Sweden are in Schengen but not the eurozone. So you're in a passport-free zone but dealing with Danish kroner and Swedish kronor. Same for Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania — Schengen but their own currencies.
• If you hold an EU passport, you can live anywhere in the EU, no visa needed. This is a separate right from Schengen travel freedom — it's the “freedom of movement of people” under EU treaty law. EU citizens can work, study, retire, and set up a business in any other EU country without a visa or permit.

Frequently asked questions

Is the UK still in the EU?

No. The UK formally left the European Union on January 31, 2020, after the 2016 Brexit referendum and years of withdrawal negotiations. A transition period kept the UK inside the EU's economic arrangements through the end of 2020. Since January 1, 2021, the UK has been a third country with its own trade deal with the EU (the Trade and Cooperation Agreement).

Was the UK ever in Schengen?

No. The UK had an opt-out from Schengen from the very beginning and never joined, because of the Common Travel Area with Ireland (free passport-free travel between the UK and Ireland, which has existed since 1923). Joining Schengen would have required putting passport controls back between Dublin and Belfast, which neither country wanted.

Is Switzerland in the EU?

No, Switzerland is not in the European Union. Switzerland voted against joining the European Economic Area in a 1992 referendum, and though it signed a series of bilateral agreements with the EU starting in 1999, full membership has never been on the cards. Switzerland is in the Schengen Area, joined in 2008.

Is Norway in the EU?

No. Norway has applied for EU membership twice — in 1972 and 1994 — and in both cases the Norwegian people voted against joining in a national referendum. Norway is, however, in the European Economic Area, which gives it access to the EU's single market, and it's been in the Schengen Area since 2001.

What's the difference between the EU and the eurozone?

The EU is the political and economic union of 27 member states. The eurozone is the subset of 20 EU members that use the euro as their official currency. Seven EU members (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden) are not in the eurozone and use their own national currencies.

Why is Ireland not in Schengen?

Because Ireland is in the Common Travel Area with the United Kingdom, which was never in Schengen. Joining Schengen would have required putting passport controls back between Ireland and the UK, which Ireland did not want. Ireland has a formal opt-out from Schengen negotiated in the Amsterdam Treaty.

Can I travel between Schengen countries with just an ID card?

If you're an EU/EEA/Schengen citizen, yes — you can use a national ID card for intra-Schengen travel if your home country issues one. If you're a non-EU citizen (including Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians, etc.), you need a passport, even though border checks don't exist inside Schengen — police on trains or in airports can still ask for identification.

Is Turkey in the EU?

No. Turkey has been a formal candidate for EU membership since 1999, but accession negotiations have been effectively frozen since 2016 due to human rights and rule of law concerns. Turkey is in a customs union with the EU (since 1995) and has an association agreement, but full membership is not currently on any realistic timeline.

Are Bulgaria and Romania fully in Schengen?

As of March 31, 2024, Bulgaria and Romania are in Schengen for air and sea borders — meaning if you fly into Sofia or Bucharest from another Schengen airport, there's no passport check. Their land borders with other Schengen countries are not yet integrated, so travelers crossing overland still face passport control. Full integration is expected but has not yet been scheduled.

Is Russia in Europe?

Geographically yes — see our guide to the 7 continents for the full story. Politically, Russia has never been in the EU or Schengen, and in March 2022 it was expelled from the Council of Europe following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Travel between Russia and most European countries has been effectively restricted since 2022.

What about Monaco and Vatican City?

Both are European microstates that use the euro through monetary agreements but are not in the EU or Schengen. In practice, though, there are no border controls at all — you just walk or drive into them from France or Italy. Travelers visit them freely and they're almost always counted in “visited Europe” counts.

The bottom line

Europe is a continent. The European Union is a political union of 27 countries. The Schengen Area is a passport- free travel zone that mostly but not entirely overlaps with the EU. The eurozone is a currency area that mostly but not entirely overlaps with both. None of them are the same thing, and all four are sometimes casually referred to as “Europe” by people who are in too much of a hurry to be precise.

If you remember one thing from this article, make it this: being in the EU and being in Schengen are separate decisions. A country can be in either, both, or neither. Norway is in Schengen but not the EU. Ireland is in the EU but not Schengen. Bulgaria and Romania are in both, but only partially in Schengen (for air and sea, not land). The United Kingdom is in neither anymore.

For travelers, the most useful practical heuristic is: if you're moving between countries on the green-and-blue parts of the map in Figure 1, you can generally do so without passport control. If you're crossing into the tan parts — the UK, Turkey, the Balkans, Ukraine, Russia — you'll face a border check. And if you hit one of the yellow exceptions (Ireland, Cyprus), you'll face border control even though they're EU members, which catches everyone off guard at least once.

For more on how we draw every European border and handle every contested case, read our methodology page. And when you're ready to start marking off the European countries you've actually visited, the countries visited map has all 44 (or 50) of them ready to click.