IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v63y2025i6p1726-1742.html

Can Third Country Nationals Be Banned From Schengen? Assessing Member State Unilateral Measures Against Russian Citizens and the Commission's Response

Author

Listed:
  • Nicole Scicluna

Abstract

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led the European Union (EU) to take several measures to support Ukraine and sanction Russia. Still further measures have been discussed, including the question of whether Russians, and especially Russian tourists, should be banned from travelling in the Schengen area. Such a ban is supported by several member states but opposed by the majority, as well as the European Commission. Nevertheless, beginning in September 2022, the EU member states bordering Russia and Belarus—that is, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland—have unilaterally imposed visa and entry restrictions on Russians. This article discusses the legality of those measures and assesses the Commission's response to them. It suggests that the unilateral Schengen restrictions contravene EU law and, further, that it would be legally and politically challenging to introduce a nationality‐based ban mechanism into the Schengen acquis. However, despite the apparent incompatibility with EU law, the Commission has tacitly tolerated member state unilateralism. The article suggests reasons why the Commission may prefer tacit toleration to either legal accommodation or enforcement, while also sounding a note of caution about the risks to legal integrity that tacit toleration may entail.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicole Scicluna, 2025. "Can Third Country Nationals Be Banned From Schengen? Assessing Member State Unilateral Measures Against Russian Citizens and the Commission's Response," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(6), pages 1726-1742, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:6:p:1726-1742
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13721
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13721
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13721?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cao, Huoqing & Chen, Shiyi & Xi, Xican, 2023. "Aging, migration, and structural transformation in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Anonymous, 2023. "The Great Risk Transfer: have we got the balance right?," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28, pages 1-1, January.
    3. Marcus T. H. Lee, 2023. "Digital Disruption and Transformation," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Yew Haur Lee & Amy Ooi Mei Wong (ed.), LEADING IN A DIGITALLY DISRUPTIVE WORLD, chapter 2, pages 33-50, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Amanda T. Lombard & Jai Clifford-Holmes & Victoria Goodall & Bernadette Snow & Hannah Truter & Patrick Vrancken & Peter J. S. Jones & Kevern Cochrane & Wesley Flannery & Christina Hicks & Lena Gippert, 2023. "Principles for transformative ocean governance," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(12), pages 1587-1599, December.
    5. , Yufifi & Mohammad, Wily & PRATAMA, ALFIAN CAHYA & Wulandari, Kasih Bunga Melati & , Fitria & Rahayuningtyas, Gisty Ayunda & , Husnaini & Sutia, Irvan & Abidin, Jaenal & Tambatua, Jandris Slamat, 2023. "Modul Kewirausahaan: Transformasi Praktik di Abad ke-21," OSF Preprints juq5g, Center for Open Science.
    6. Frank Schimmelfennig & Thomas Winzen, 2014. "Instrumental and Constitutional Differentiation in the European Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 354-370, March.
    7. Armanu & Ainur Rofiq & Ananda Sabil Hussein & Putu Dian Ekawati, 2023. "Digital Military Leadership in Digital Transformation," Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, in: Adi Kusumaningrum & Airin Liemanto (ed.), Proceedings of the 1st Brawijaya International Conference on Business and Law (BICoBL 2022), pages 153-162, Springer.
    8. Yaning Zhang, 2022. "Limits of Law in the Multilevel System: Explaining the European Commission's Toleration of Noncompliance Concerning Pharmaceutical Parallel Trade," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 1001-1018, July.
    9. Simone Manfredi & Marlene Jugl, 2024. "Tackling Unintended Consequences of EU Sanctions: NGOs' Advocacy for Humanitarian Exceptions," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(6), pages 1519-1537, November.
    10. repec:osf:osfxxx:juq5g_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sandra Kröger & Maria Dede, 2022. "Differentiated integration in the European Union: Its role for cooperating with nonmembers and for the EU’s future as perceived by academic experts," RSCAS Working Papers 2022/63, European University Institute.
    2. Philipp Genschel & Markus Jachtenfuchs & Marta Migliorati, 2023. "Differentiated integration as symbolic politics? Constitutional differentiation and policy reintegration in core state powers," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(1), pages 81-101, March.
    3. Barbora Hronešová, 2017. "European integration differentiation - theory and concept [Diferenciace evropské integrace - teorie a koncepty]," Současná Evropa, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2017(1), pages 58-76.
    4. Thomas Winzen & Frank Schimmelfennig, 2016. "Explaining differentiation in European Union treaties," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(4), pages 616-637, December.
    5. Giulia Ajmone Marsan & Adelia Rahmawati, 2026. "Innovations Across Emerging Markets: Multiple Models, Shared Lessons," Working Papers DP-2025-11, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    6. Paolo Chiocchetti, 2023. "A Quantitative Analysis of Legal Integration and Differentiation in the European Union, 1958–2020," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1337-1359, September.
    7. Ioannis Vergioglou & Sven Hegewald, 2023. "From causes to consequences: Investigating the effects of differentiated integration on citizens’ EU support," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(1), pages 206-224, March.
    8. Yang, Yong & Chih, Yao-Yu & Wen, Chenfei & Luo, Xuan, 2026. "Antipollution willingness and urban population distribution: Evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Stefan Telle & Lisanne de Blok & Catherine E. de Vries & Lorenzo Cicchi, 2022. "Elite‐Mass Linkages in the Preference Formation on Differentiated Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(6), pages 1663-1683, November.
    10. Ronja Sczepanski & Tanja A Börzel, 2023. "Two sides of the same coin? The effect of differentiation on noncompliance with European Union law," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(1), pages 63-80, March.
    11. Tanja A. Börzel, 2016. "From EU Governance of Crisis to Crisis of EU Governance: Regulatory Failure, Redistributive Conflict and Eurosceptic Publics," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54, pages 8-31, September.
    12. Max Heermann & Dirk Leuffen, 2020. "No Representation without Integration! Why Differentiated Integration Challenges the Composition of the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 1016-1033, July.
    13. Frank Schimmelfennig, 2015. "What's the News in ‘New Intergovernmentalism'? A Critique of Bickerton, Hodson and Puetter," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 723-730, July.
    14. Jørgen Bølstad, 2015. "Dynamics of European integration: Public opinion in the core and periphery," European Union Politics, , vol. 16(1), pages 23-44, March.
    15. repec:prg:jnlwep:v:2017:y:2017:i:1:id:144:p:58-76 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Robert Zbiral & Sebastiaan Princen & Hubert Smekal, 2023. "Differentiation through flexibility in implementation: Strategic and substantive uses of discretion in EU directives," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(1), pages 102-120, March.
    17. Martin Moland, 2024. "Past Political Asymmetry and Present Public Opinion: How Has the Asymmetrical Federation of the EU Shaped Popular Opinion of Its Optimal Shape?," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 54(2), pages 361-385.
    18. Thomas Winzen & Frank Schimmelfennig, 2023. "National Differentiation Experience and Citizen Support for Differentiated Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1235-1260, September.
    19. Meng, Meng & Zhang, Wuke & Zhu, Xi & Shi, Qinghua, 2024. "Agricultural mechanization and rural worker mobility: Evidence from the Agricultural Machinery Purchase Subsidies programme in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    20. Wang, Jiang & Ji, Zhenhua & Liu, Kai, 2026. "Uneven benefits from trade liberalization: Tariff barriers and labor migration in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    21. Tegan Evans & Gianluca Ferraro & Pierre Failler, 2025. "Transformation Across Land-Sea Governance: Future Research Opportunities," Ocean and Society, Cogitatio Press, vol. 2.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:6:p:1726-1742. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.