The European Commission said illegal border crossings into the Schengen area fell by 26% in 2025, while the share of people without a right to stay in the EU who were returned rose to 28%, the highest rate in 10 years. The findings came in the Commission’s fifth State of Schengen report, published as Brussels set out its priorities for the year ahead.

The numbers give the clearest sign yet that the bloc’s border control system is becoming more forceful at the same time it is getting more digital. The report said the Entry/Exit System was fully launched in April 2026, and that in its first six months member states registered over 66 million entries and exits and refused 32,000 people who had no right to enter the EU.

The report also said the Schengen area continued to show resilience over the past year, even as migration pressure remained uneven. Frontex data cited in the assessment showed detections fell by 40% in the first four months of 2026, but the Central and Eastern Mediterranean remained the busiest routes. The agency also warned that smuggling networks continued to expose migrants to deadly crossings.

The annual review matters because Schengen is still one of the European Union’s most visible promises: more than 450 million EU citizens can travel, work, study and live freely across internal borders. The Commission has been assessing the state of the system every year since 2022, and this latest report was meant not just to take stock but to steer policy. In January 2026, it adopted the EU’s first-ever Visa Strategy, another sign that Brussels is trying to pair mobility with tighter screening.

That pairing is where the tension lies. A 28% return rate is the best in a decade, but it still means most people ordered to leave remain in the bloc. And while the new Entry/Exit System recorded tens of millions of crossings in its first months, the Commission’s own figures show that control is not the same as resolution. The system can track movement more precisely; it cannot on its own solve the pressures that keep irregular routes open.

The Commission has invited the Schengen Council to discuss the report and adopt the 2026-2027 priorities at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in June. That meeting will show whether member states are ready to turn the report’s diagnosis into tougher common action, or whether the bloc will keep relying on a border architecture that is stronger on paper than in the places where the pressure is still most dangerous.