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While Schengen borders are generally open, countries have the right to shut/restrict their borders with other Schengen countries in certain scenarios.

Has France announced any plans to temporarily reintroduce controls or otherwise restrict entry from other Schengen countries during the 2024 Summer Olympics?

Even is nothing is announced, is there any precedent for similar events within the Schengen zone that make it a possibility?

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    Basic police security measures can be done anywhere inside a country. Done randomly it would also be far more effective than at well known border points. Disrupting the cross border commuters would probably cause more damage than benefits. So for security measure planers, border controls is probably a less attractive option.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Feb 28 at 17:17
  • @MarkJohnson Not really. The issue is in the vast majority of countries, law enforcement has more powers at the border than domestically, specifically, to search and detain people and goods.
    – user71659
    Commented Feb 29 at 1:22
  • @user71659 Do not worry, if required the law enforcement will have the needed authority they require.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Feb 29 at 3:29
  • @user71659 "in the vast majority of countries, law enforcement has more powers at the border than domestically": in the context of this question, I rather suspect that the issue is whether France is one of those countries. If they reintroduce border controls, they can screen everyone crossing the border. If they have the power to set up a perimeter around areas where the Olympics are taking place and screen everyone entering those areas, that could be rather more efficient as it would require screening far fewer people.
    – phoog
    Commented Feb 29 at 12:16
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    @JonathanReez You regularly use comments to bring up vaguely related right wing nonsense, where do you even get this stuff? It's gone down since the beginning of the Covid pandemic but the number of people removed from France has otherwise steadily increased over the last decade, peak was 18000 people in 2018, more than 10000 last year. The state is not forthcoming with comprehensive statistics but this policy costs over €500M per year. How is that “barely anyone” and how many people do you think should be removed and at what cost?
    – Relaxed
    Commented Feb 29 at 23:36

2 Answers 2

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France among other EU countries has been using Schengen exception clauses to reinstate interior border controls since the 2015 terrorist attacks, and circumventing/overusing them ever since in a continuous series of extension periods.

In 2022 and 2023, the EU court of Justice ruled that these controls could not be made to exceed 6 months in that way unless a new, different serious threat arised.

France's Conseil d'Etat has however ruled against the ECJ since, and French majority politicians have lobbied to loosen the Schengen regulations. In February 2024 an agreement has been reached between EU Council and Parliament to extend the periods to a maximum of two years, renewable for a year.

The new rules will take time to finalize and implement. In the meantime, France currently has temporary reintroduction of border control running until April 2024 due to new terrorist threats, and is likely to renew it again for the Olympics even if there wasn't a specific annoucement about it. That means yes, expect border controls on entry where border police sees fit, especially when travelling by air through airports that have the infrastructure to host a customs check (it even happens in unlikely routes like Belgium -> France for instance).

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  • Belgium => France is a very big roadway for various illicit substances (notably from the Netherlands), this is no wonder
    – Nicolas Formichella
    Commented Feb 29 at 15:04
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    Well it is by no means a terrorist threat, and as mentioned in the linked Figaro article, unlike air, road and rail were (are?) left surprisingly unchecked.
    – guillaume31
    Commented Feb 29 at 17:19
  • "it is by no means a terrorist threat": but in fact it is; the 2015 Bataclan attack -- the initial justification for the reintroduced controls -- was perpetrated by a terrorist cell based in Belgium, and at least one of them appears to have reached Paris in a rented car. So there are even more reasons than those noted by @NicolasFormichella for controlling the northeastern border.
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 11 at 12:06
  • @phoog "even more reasons" - you mean "actually there are reasons"? Because drug trafficking is definitely not a serious threat to internal security as per Schengen. Treaties are treaties, you cannot just profit from Schengen when it suits you and tramp on it when it doesn't. About terrorism, again, you can experience it yourself if you want, there are zero road or rail border controls between Belgium and France, which is (obviously) how the 2015 terrorists entered.
    – guillaume31
    Commented Jul 14 at 17:02
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It is very likely it will renew the controls reintroduction, since those have been reintroduced since 2015 :

Foreseeable cases (Article 25 and 26 of the codified SBC)

For foreseeable events (e.g. sports events), the duration of the border control is limited to 30 days or for the foreseeable duration of the threat, if it exceeds 30 days.

Even is nothing is announced, is there any precedent for similar events within the Schengen zone that make it a possibility?

Except for the above, the European Football cup 2016, which was held in France, had no other specific measures

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    I have downvoted this answer because I do not understand what it is saying
    – ajd
    Commented Feb 29 at 17:22

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