Passports of the European Union
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The European Union itself does not issue ordinary passports, but ordinary passport booklets issued by its 27 member states share a common format.
This common format features a colored cover emblazoned—in the official language(s) of the issuing country —with the title "European Union", followed by the name(s) of the member state, the heraldic "Arms" of the State concerned, the word "PASSPORT", together with the biometric passport symbol at the bottom center of the front cover.
EU member states' ordinary passport booklets (France shown here) have common design elements and all, except Croatia, have burgundy coloured covers.
Image: Reisepass at
Image: Belgian Passport 2008 cover
Image: Passportbg
Schengen Area
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The Schengen Area is an area encompassing 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice policy of the European Union (EU), it mostly functions as a single jurisdiction under a common visa policy for international travel purposes. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement and the 1990 Schengen Convention, both signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.
The Gibraltar/Spain border in 2004 with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background
The border checkpoint in La Farga de Moles on the Andorra–Spain border
A typical Schengen internal border crossing has no border control post and only a common EU-state sign displaying the name of the country being entered, as here between Germany and Austria. The larger blue sign announces entry to the Federal Republic of Germany in German, the smaller white sign announces entry into the German state of Bavaria.
Schengen arrival gate at Rīga Airport (RIX)