The European Commission adopted its first 'health check', a biannual overview on the functioning of the Schengen area, which shows that, among other findings, the pressure at the Schengen external borders is focused on a limited number of hot spots, in particular the Eastern Mediterranean route via Turkey to Greece. The report is accompanied by guidelines which seek to ensure a coherent interpretation and implementation of the selected issues.

The first Schengen 'health check' adopted by the European Commission shows that during the period from 1st November 2011 to 30th April 2012 the pressure at the Schengen external borders is focused in the Eastern Mediterranean route via Turkey to Greece. In the last three months of 2011, nearly 30,000 irregular border crossings were detected at the external borders and about 75 percent of these were on the Eastern Mediterranean route. The report is a biannual overview on the functioning of the Schengen area, which will contribute to enhancing political guidance and cooperation amongst Schengen participating countries.

With regard to the application of Schengen rules, during the six month period covered in the report, controls at internal borders have been reintroduced only twice: by France at its border with Italy (for the G20 Summit on 3-4 November 2011) and by Spain at its border with France and at the Barcelona and Gerona airports (for the European Central Bank meeting on 2-4 May 2012). Although the report shows that in some cases there is some room for improvement when applying Schengen rules, none of the evaluations have shown the type of deficiencies that would require immediate action by the Commission. In addition to these findings, the report also shows that the launch of the Visa Information System (VIS) on 11 October 2011 has proved successful in the first region of deployment (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).

The report is accompanied by guidelines which seek to ensure a coherent interpretation and implementation of the selected issues, in a spirit of solidarity. These guidelines include further guidelines on the issuance of (temporary) residence permits and travel documents, and guidelines on police measures in the internal border zones.