Trade

The European Union (EU) passport-free Schengen areas is one of the EU's most tangible achievements along with the single market and the single currency. When the financial and economic crisis hit in 2008, the single market faced contradictory pressures from member states seeking either to retrench or reinforce the single market in response to the crisis. The EU's passport-free Schengen areas is one of the EU's most tangible achievements along with the single market and the single currency. The free movement of people is guaranteed under the agreement, which removes checks at most of the EU's internal frontiers and strengthens controls at the EU's external borders. Lisbon also launched the idea of a regular spring summit on economic and social affairs. The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament adopted the Services Directive under the co-decision procedures. The protectionist tendency led by the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy lost out.