Outcome of Research Interviews with “Schengen Veterans”

This chapter summarizes the outcome of research interviews conducted with “Schengen veterans”, i.e., officials and practitioners who had (or have) worked for a long time with Schengen issues in European and national administrations, some of them even in the early 1980s and 1990s. The research questions posed to these veterans in semi-structured interviews focused on topics on which few or no replies can be found in official documents or academic literature and included the question “Why were certain subject matters considered as Schengen-related and others not, and why has this distinction changed in the course of years?” In total, 25 persons with long-standing experience in the field of Schengen were interviewed. Most of these “Schengen veterans” had acquired their experience in periods between 1980 and 2020 within European institutions. A majority had worked at the European Commission and the Council Secretariat, some also at the previous Schengen Secretariat and at the Benelux Secretariat. Some interview partners had followed the development of Schengen from within national administrations. The interviewed persons included four (former) Director Generals, six (former) Directors and five (former) Heads of Unit. The result of these key informant interviews facilitates understanding of the context of certain legal questions discussed in this book. The replies reflect the consolidated institutional memory of relevant individual actors in the field of Schengen, and they also include recommendations on the way forward for reducing legal complexity.