“The sleepy Luxembourg village of Schengen, the place where the European Union’s border-free zone bearing the village’s name was agreed in 1985, is a symbol of how joyous a borderless Europe can be. It is 1km from the centre of the village, across the bridge over the Mosel, to Germany, […]
Search Results for "schengen"
More transparency needed – an EU citizen can’t currently know when and where Schengen is suspended
On Thursday 29th October I am taking the train from Berlin to Vienna, via Nürnberg. This means I will cross the German – Austrian border at Passau. But what is the status of that border at the moment? Is Schengen suspended there, or not? This is a valid question to […]
Non-Schengen compliant border control at Buchs SG station, 1 July 2015, 0700
I was a passenger on the EuroNight 60466 D. Budapest-Keleti at 2100 on 30 June 2015, scheduled arrival Zürich HB at 0820 on 1st July 2015. I was a passenger in the Sleeping Car on this service (there are three carriages from Budapest – a carriage with seats, a couchette […]
The term “economic Schengen” needs to be banished before it gains any traction
Henrik Enderlein and Jean Pisani-Ferry started to talk of an “economic Schengen” in the autumn of 2014, and Enderlein and Germany’s economy minister Gabriel were at it again today at a conference in the BMWi in Berlin. This is a really bad idea for four reasons, each of which I […]
What does it take for the Commission to take a Schengen complaint seriously?
Back in May I was subjected to the most extraordinary border control identity check at Perpignan station. I have blogged the transcript of the encounter here, and sent this to the European Commission, hoping they see this as non-Schengen compliant. The redacted letter of response from the Commission is here: […]
Non-Schengen (and non-French law?) compliant border control at Perpignan, 31st May, 1106
Three officers of the French Police Nationale boarded TGV 9702 at Perpignan at around 11am on 31st May, reaching my seat at 1106. The TGV was still stationary in Perpignan at this time, due to an obstacle on the tracks further north that held the train in the station approximately 30 […]
Commission replies to my Rzepin Schengen complaint
Back on 11th March I documented an interesting incident at the Polish-German border between Rzepin and Frankfurt(Oder) where a Polish border guard demanded my passport and would not accept a driving license as I was about to cross the border. For me this crossed the border between what is an […]
Non-Schengen compliant border control between Rzepin and Frankfurt (Oder), 11th March 2014, 2156
3 police officers or border guards, 2 Polish and 1 German as far as I could tell (the one who spoke to me was Polish) boarded train EC 40, the Warszawa – Berlin express, at Rzepin on 11th March 2014. I was in the front carriage of the train, where […]
If Gibraltar wants to solve its border headache with Spain, it should join Schengen
So the Spain-Gibraltar border dispute rumbles on. Queues at the land border to enter Gibraltar persist, and suggestions abound that Spain may introduce a charge to cross from Gibraltar into Spain. Meanwhile Tory MEP for the South West & Gibraltar, Ashley Fox, has called on the European Commission to take […]
FreeMovement.net – mapping breaches of Schengen
As any regular reader of this blog knows, non-Schengen compliant border controls (and my documentation of them) have been a regular topic in the last few months. I’ve been checked at St Jean de la Maurienne, Buchs, Puttgarden, Oldenburg and Padborg recently, and further in the past at Brenner and […]
New Europe | It’s Time To Protect Schengen
For me it was a journey by rail like any other: a Paris to Milan TGV between two work assignments. Until, between St Jean de Maurienne and Modane, stations near the border on the French side, four policemen passed through the train asking all passengers for passports. “Why,” I asked […]
A border control dressed up as a customs control, inside Schengen. Buchs, Switzerland, 1020, 14 March 2013
Switzerland is in the Schengen Area. But it is not part of the EU Customs Union. Therein is the newest excuse I’ve heard for a border control within the Schengen area. I was a passenger on Railjet 362, departing Feldkirch* (Austria) at 0948 this morning, and scheduled in Buchs (Swiss […]