Homeless in Vancouver: Schengen countries at a glance

The bureaucrats in Brussels have sprouted another plan to help deal with the influx of refugees and asylum-seekers into the European Union—well, 78 percent of it, at least.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the European Commission intends to create a new, 2,000-strong, supra-national European border and coast guard force.

This force would have the power to step in and unilaterally take over the border controls of an EU country during an emergency (of the refugee kind) in order to supervise asylum claims and detain and deport failed asylum seekers.

However, the European Commission’s controversial plan only affects the so-called “Schengen countries” in the EU—and this is where it can get a bit confusing.

There are 28 countries in the European Union and there are 26 Schengen countries—the latter being signatories to the Schengen Agreement that created the Schengen Area by eliminating border controls among Schengen members and strengthening border controls with non-Schengen members.

Only 22 of the Schengen countries are in the EU and six countries in the EU are not Schengen countries, while four of the Schengen countries are not in the EU.

Thank goodness for Venn diagrams!