Schengen

[Khandro]

I'm taking a 2 hour drive to Strasbourg this morning which means crossing the French border, and a friend who lives there advises, 'Don’t forget to take your passport, It’s unlikely you’ll be checked at the border, although it does happen sometimes, especially at sensitive times of the year.'
It's never happened before, but does it look like the Schengen project maybe beginning to crumble?

[naomi24]

I think it has to eventually.

[bhg481]

We always have our passports checked when leaving UK and leaving France to come back to UK, whether by ferry or shuttle. Sometimes French don't bother but UK always do. Passports never checcked when crossing from France into Belgium, into Luxembourg and back into France again. This summer there were delays at German/Czech and Austrian/Czech borders but not for all-vehicle passport checks.

[mikey4444]

Khandro....if my memory serves me correctly, you live in Germany and that you have British nationality ?

If that is the case, why would you travel across any European border, without carrying your passport ?

[naomi24]

Mikey, do you not understand Schengen?

[lindapalmara]

He obviously doesn't Khandro. For years when we drive to Europe we constantly have our passports. We even our car boots searched boots searched.

[bhg481]

I was under the impression that everybody had to carry some form of ID whilst in the EU countries. We UK residents always take our passports to mainland Europe, so it doesn't really affect us but the people over there must get used to rambling around and very rarely getting checked so, I suspect, might get a bit casual about having ID with them.

[gulliver1]

Thought the UK were not in Schengen!.

[naomi24]

^Another one who doesn't understand it.

[bhg481]

gulliver - correct so you need ID to get from UK to the Schengen-EU area. I was unaware that Khandro was a UK citizen living within Schengen when I made my first response.

[naomi24]

bhg481, you need a passport to get out of the UK and back in again, but not to get into countries that subscribe to Schengen.

[bhg481]

naomi - you don't need a passport to travel around within the Schengen area but you SHOULD need a passport to get into it.

[naomi24]

bhg481, I can't remember the last time I needed to show my passport to get around Europe. That's the idea of Schengen. That the UK doesn't subscribe to it is irrelevant. It simply means that whilst we and all other Europeans have free access to the Schengen area, no one has free access to the UK.

[gulliver1]

Who said I do not understand Schengen????? eh,
all I said was" Thought Uk was not in Schengen"

[bhg481]

Naomi - Not all the EU countries are in Schengen, Romania and Bulgaria, which I've never visited, are not, so I assume there would be border checks there. Even countries like Norway and Switzerland are in Schengen, even though they are not EU, hence the absence of border checks there nowadays. Like you, I can't remember the last time I had my passport checked, other than to/from UK. Even when we leave the EU that should make no difference.

[naomi24]

bhg481, I did say ‘countries that subscribe to Schengen’.

[bhg481]

Naomi - there's not free access to the Schengen area, just free access within it. You need ID to get into it and then you're free to travel around freely. When was the last time you got into the Schengen area without showing your passport?

[naomi24]

bhg481, //When was the last time you got into the Schengen area without showing your passport? //

A month or so back. As I said I can't remember when I last needed to show my passport in what is now the Schengen area.

[New Judge]

“you need a passport to get out of the UK and back in again, but not to get into countries that subscribe to Schengen.”

“It simply means that whilst we and all other Europeans have free access to the Schengen area,…

“As I said I can't remember when I last needed to show my passport in what is now the Schengen area.”

I think there is some confusion, naomi, either in what you are saying or how it is being interpreted. You need a passport to enter and leave the UK. But you also need a passport to enter a Schengen country from a non-Schengen one. It is only “inter-Schengen” crossings that are free of passport control. I travel to Schengen countries (France, Spain, Greece, Netherlands, Germany) from the UK quite often. I sometimes don’t need to show my passport when entering those countries (usually because the border control staff cannot be bothered) but I know I can be asked for it and I am always ready to do so. Some countries have separate border control arrangements at their airports for arrivals from other Schengen countries.

There is no difference in passport requirements for somebody arriving in a Schengen country from the UK as there would be for somebody arriving from (say) the USA. But once in the area the free access arrangements apply to everybody there, wherever they originate from.

[bhg481]

NJ - that's exactly the point I've been (unsuccessfully) trying to make. There is a difference between getting into the Schengen area and freely moving around within it.

[ichkeria]

Which is why I have never fully understood why people get so wound up about Schengen with respect to entryism into the EU. If the border. Adequate on the outside are surely what count. The UKIP poster during the referendum was particularly mischievous in this regard as it seemed deliberately to confuse people by suggesting freedom within Europe equated to an open door to the outside.