What? I haven't been stopped on a border a single time while travelling within Schengen.
At the same time, crossing the Channel tunnel or taking the Eurostar means having to get through border control, handing out your passport and sometimes, if they feel like it, having to answer questions on what you're going to do in the UK.
Taking the Eurostar from Brussels to Lille (because it's sometimes cheaper than a regular TGV, or because the timing is better) is even more bothersome because they get double suspicious that you only want to go to France instead of all the way to London.
One simple example, when you come back from an international trip to your native country you still need to go through the border even though you have freedom of movement there
If you're totally free to travel, why do they check people at the border? I'm pretty sure that they can refuse entry (else I'd like to see a source that they cannot). As such, not free to move.
Don´t know what you did, but the last time I got off the plane in London (travelled from Germany), I showed my Personalausweis ("small" passport, everybody in Germany has one) and were good to go and leave the airport. No checks, no questions, nothing.
Well, I've never taken a plane within the EU, but usually the border checks are before boarding, not when you get off the plane. Similarly, the border checks are in Calais for Eurotunnel and in Paris or Brussels station for Eurostar.
You have to embark and go through border checks 30 minutes before departure with Eurostar, that's a fact. Whether you will have to answer questions is very random and doesn't seem to depend on whether you give them a passport or just French ID. My wife has a Canadian passport and a French residency permit and this does make them ask more questions though.
Eurotunnel checks were lighter when I used to take it, but that was before the Calais crisis so I would guess it has become more bothersome lately.
In any case, you just can't say it's as easy as just hoping in your car and driving to Belgium and back to fetch your beer.
But... I'm really not. I know very well the difference.
I guess I misunderstood what was being talked about, but I was actually trying to make the point that movement between Shengen and the UK is different from movement within Shengen.
Specifically, I was answering to this exchange:
>> it was always more difficult to go to/from the UK
> This is not true.
by saying that it is actually more difficult to go to/from the UK. Which it is.
I'm guessing you're from UK? Travelling to UK always means a passport check and usually answering a few questions. This is pretty much every single time.
If I go to Indonesia for which I need a Visa on arrival, they asked me zero questions, nor said anything. I handed them the money, they gave the visa (etc), done.
For many countries I don't need a Visa for. Saying EU is freedom of movement, but then narrowly defining this something else is moving goal posts.
I have various foreign colleagues (non EU). They need a Visa to go to the UK. UK being part of EU or not does not make that much of a difference for them at all.
The effect is whether you can easily work in another EU country. But that is just one part of "freedom of movement".
Nobody said that UK/Schengen is on a level to EU/US. It's just way more complicated than Schengen/Schengen which has no check at all and there's zero risk to be turned down at the border.
You have a funny vision of what "complicated" means. Needing only your everyday national ID for travelling (without the need for visas, passport or permits) and saying "hello" to an officer is not something difficult for many people.
UK/Schengen and Schengen/Schengen are so close compared to EU/Rest of the world, that the differences are imperceptible.
> UK/Schengen and Schengen/Schengen are so close compared to EU/Rest of the world, that the differences are imperceptible.
But they are so much perceptible, when you live inside Shengen. Nobody says it is complicated (as an absolute) to go to the UK. But it is more complicated (as a comparison) than travelling within the EU. I don't even understand how that can even be in question.
See, when I'm traveling from Berlin to Poland I have no delay. I only notice the border because speed limits are now different. I do that on a regular basis. Last time I traveled to the UK I actually had to wait in line to show my ID. It's less of a hassle than crossing the border between Botswana and Namibia, but more than between Ger/PL. It does take noticeable time. There are people commuting across the border in many regions of europe and for them, 10 minutes every morning do add up.
I was travelling the past month from Dublin to Nice and on my way back they wouldn't let me board the plane because I "just" had an Italian national ID and they wanted to see an actual passport. Been traveling for more than 10 years within the EU and never had that happen to me before. After about ~10-15 minutes of arguing with border control that you don't need a passport to travel within the EU (I don't even own one) was granted access to the plane with a scoff and a "just get your damn passport next time and don't waste our time" line.
Just saying that it very strongly depends on the person at border control at the airport and a lot of different circumstances, you can get pretty tight checks from EU to EU too.
Dublin isn't in Schengen, so you actually do need a passport to travel between there and a Schengen country. I'm Irish, and can confirm that this baffles citizens of most other EU nations.
That's not true. Schengen is about lack of border controls. Being able to travel without a passport (using only national ID) is a EU thing. As a Polish citizen, I can travel to UK or Ireland without a passport, but I still need to go through a border check. Going to e.g. Italy I don't go through any checks.
You don't need a passport to travel to Dublin from mainland EU. You just need an EU ID card. The fact that it's not in Schengen just means that there are a bit tighter "passport" checks and controls and usually it takes a bit longer after you land to reach the exit. That's my experience with it at least, as somebody who's lived here for almost 2 years and been traveling all over Europe.
I haven't traveled Dublin/Nice but I haven't seen any border control at an Airport for Schengen/Schengen flights for a long long time (or car/train travel for that matter). Airlines sometimes check ID cards though and those people might not be up-to-date with regulations.
This is not true. You obviously haven't travelled many times from UK to other european countries (or viceversa)...