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40th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement & the return of the historic ship “Marie-Astrid”
On 14 June 1985, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed the Schengen Agreement in the small Luxembourg border town Schengen at the tripoint between Luxembourg, Germany, and France. By signing this Agreement, the five countries committed to gradually dismantling border controls between one another. The Agreement was later supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, which, after signature in 1990, finally entered into force in 1995, enabling the complete abolition of internal border controls within the Schengen Area. Today, the Schengen Area is made up of 29 countries.
The "Marie-Astrid" is the ship on which the Schengen Agreement was signed. It was a Luxembourg pleasure boat located on the Moselle. The signing took place on a boat - almost exactly on the border itself - to emphasise the idea of cross-border cooperation. The “European Museum” in Schengen focuses on the history of Europe’s borders and will reopen to visitors after renovations in June 2025. The historic ship “Marie-Astrid” will also be on display in Schengen in its new role as a floating museum on the Moselle.
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75th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration
Born in Luxembourg as a German citizen, Robert Schuman (1886-1963) lived in the Grand Duchy until 1903. He became a French citizen in 1919, when the Alsace-Lorraine region, where he was then living, was returned to France. His experience of two World Wars and his roots in the Franco-German border region certainly influenced his actions and efforts.
After the Second World War, the law graduate became a leading statesman in France – first as Finance Minister, then Prime Minister from 1947 to 1948, then as the Foreign Minister from 1948 to 1952. He quickly realised that the Cold War was a danger to lasting peace in Europe.
Given the tense relations between France and Germany, Schuman aimed to bring the two countries closer together and lay the foundations for a new European unity. On 9 May 1950, he presented at the French Foreign Ministry the Schuman Plan, which proposed the creation of a supranational authority that would be responsible for heavy industry. It was on this basis that France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg founded the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) – the forerunner of the EU – in 1951. |
