With so many economic and political challenges looming, the EU nevertheless began 2025 with a little bit of its old magic and a reminder that it’s here to do far more than simply react. At the stroke of midnight on 1 January, a dog crossed the border between Romania and Hungary, and like all the people to follow it, nope, it didn’t have to show ID. As of 2025, Romania and Bulgaria are full members of the Schengen area – that counterintuitive dismantling of borders that refuses to be snuffed out in an age of rising nationalism.
The quote “we have made Europe, now we must make Europeans” is often apocryphally attributed to Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Even if he never actually said it, the “making” of Europeans is tangible in two ways. Both have to do with movement. Erasmus – the scheme that lent its name to a whole generation of students for whom it opened Europe’s doors – and the Schengen agreement, which eliminated physical borders between most countries in the EU.
