"On 1 November 1993, under the third Delors Commission, the Maastricht Treaty became effective, creating the European Union with its pillar system including foreign and home affairs alongside the European Community.[16][17] The 1994 European elections were held resulting in the Socialist group maintaining their position as the largest party in Parliament. The Council proposed Jacques Santer as Commission President but was seen as a second choice candidate, undermining his position. Parliament narrowly approved Santer but his commission gained greater support being approved by 416 votes to 103, Santer had use his new powers under Maastricht to flex greater control over his choice of Commissioners. They took office on 23 January 1995.[18]"
"The Schengen Agreements and the rules adopted under them were, for the EU members of the Agreement, entirely separate from the EU structures until the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, which incorporated them into the mainstream of European Union law. The borderless zone created by the Schengen Agreements, the Schengen Area, currently consists of 25 European countries, covering a population of over 400 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometers (1,664,911 sq mi).[1]"
Bzzzt! Wrong treaty! Bzzzt! No idea about European integration!
Schengen is about abolishing borders, it is not at all about freedom of movement (i.e. the right to live and work everywhere).
Making freedom of movement possible is one of the central tasks of the European Union. Its most important goal is to create a common market. Freedom of movement of work is obviously an absolutely necessary pre-condition for a common market.
The European Union is wholly responsible for bringing that freedom of movement to EU member states. That's what the 1993 treaty was (mostly) all about!
There is no freedom of movement between all Schengen countries. I'm German and I definitly can't just go live and work in Switzerland (which is not an EU member) – despite Switzerland being a Schengen member.
And yes, it's true: The EU was founded in 1993. But that's not really the right way of looking at it. Before the EU there was the EEC (European Economic Community), founded in 1958. With the 1993 treaty the structure of the EEC was slightly changed, it was given more power and it was renamed to EU. Yes, there were changes but not really radical ones. For all intents and purposes EU and EEC are one and the same.
Schengen is about abolishing border controls, not freedom of movement. Those are two different things. Only EU citizens enjoy freedom of movement. Making freedom of movement possible is indeed on of the main tasks of the EU.
And yes, the European Economic Community was renamed European Union in 1993, for all intents and purposes those two entities are, however, one and the same. The EEC was founded in 1958.
Certainly not. You are correct in that there is a logical and chronological continuation, but the EEC was an economic entity, as it's name suggests, and was meant to promote economic cooperation and integration.
EU nowadays, on the other hand, is a political entity and picks and promotes its goals accordingly.
I like how you completely ignored the main point I was making (namely that freedom of movement is an exclusive achievement of the European Union, only available to people living in EU member states, and that Schengen has nothing whatsoever to do with it) and quibbled with my framing of the EU and EEC.
You were incorrect in bringing up Schengen. That is my main point. Try and respond to it. Now to the sidelines.
Yes, the EEC was changed when it was renamed in 1993. Not radically, though. It still is mostly about economics and its main goal is to create a common market. That includes freedom of movement. The famous two pillars that were added in 1993 – namely security and justice – haven’t seen all that much love from EU member states and are for the purpose of this discussion irrelevant.
The EEC was political, the EU is political. Making a distinction there doesn’t make any sense. The European Parliament is much older than the EU. The European Commission is much older than the EU. Those are all political institutions.
Yes, how those elements work together was changed in 1993 but that’s it.
I was referring only to the "buy ticket and go" part, that is free travelling, which was made possible by Schengen. To work you indeed used to need a visa (some EU countries still need that even today btw), you are right there.
The rest of your post is just sad. I think you're trolling, but in case you really don't see the difference between the original integration process (voluntary cooperation of nation states, read up on De Gaulle&co) and the current state of the EU (anything but), that's delusional. I suggest you open an arbitrary newspaper today and see what's happening in Europe.
Sadly, out of the few positive things that people associate EU with, even fewer are really to EU's credit.