France to re-instate border controls

For non European looking people Schengen has ended already a few years ago. Try to cross from Italy into France at Ventimiglia with a dark skin face, and you will see for yourself.

Just to add:
https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen-borders-and-visa/schengen-area/temporary-reintroduction-border-control_en

We did not have systematic border controls prior to Schengen. It was not possible then. It is even less possible now.

And it is not the end of Schengen. No country in Europe is going to leave the agreement and become the one country that the many tourists from Asia cross off their list...

Some posts were edited or removed. No politics. Stick to what affects travelers.

My passport can be checked anytime the authorities view as necessary and since on every trip I go back and forth across the France-German border "they " can check it regardless.

And it is not the end of Schengen. No country in Europe is going to leave the agreement and become the one country that the many tourists from Asia cross off their list...

There's a difference between leaving the agreement and enforcing your borders as France, Germany and others are doing. The EU laws restrict border enforcement to 6 months but this can be extended if it is considered necessary, which given Germany's police union official's views is very likely. If the majority of EU countries do the same then this effectively makes the Schengen agreement null and void.

My last two train trips to Austria; at the last stop on the Hungarian side the Austrian RoboCops got on. You know, full riot gear, weapons. They walked from one end of the train to the other and got off at the frist stop in Austria. I presume they ride back to Hungary and then repeat all day. Obviously profiling those on the train.

Ewwwww apparently Slovenia too......

https://hungarytoday.hu/austria-to-extend-controls-at-the-hungarian-border/

So there are border controls and then there are border controls.

It is odd coming from the USA, to see an armed mil person, pointing a gun and saying get back during a bomb threat.

If the majority of EU countries do the same then this effectively
makes the Schengen agreement null and void.

Schengen is about more than frictionless borders. It is also about Visas. As an American or Australian you do not notice that, but for, for example. and Indian or Chinese or Malaysian or Indonesian visiting Europe it is a boon that they only need to apply for one Visum. A country that decides to leave that arrangement will suddenly see a lot of tourist skip them. A honeymooning couple from Indian is not going to apply for a Schengen Visa and separately also for a visa for eg. just Hungary, if Hungary were to leave Schengen. No. they will just drop Budapest from their tour.

The border checks themselves are mostly just virtue signalling. Before Schengen I rarely had to show my passport at an internal European border. Schengen did not change much there.

Mr. E, on our train trip from Budapest to Vienna in 2017, border security came on the train and passport checked everyone. There was a family that did not have the necessary visa and I recall they were from Central or South America. They were allowed to continue on the train and told to sort out their documents in Vienna.

In 2002, my first trip to Budapest, the Hungarian cops boarded dressed in black combat gear and automatic weapons and checked everyone on the train. A nice welcome. They haven't boarded the train back to Budapest in recent memory.

I didn't get the virtue singaling comment.

I missed such a dramatic occurrence in 2001 going into Poland from Berlin and returning from Poland ie, Krakow to Berlin, no combat gear or anything similar. Likewise in 2003 again going into Poland ( Terminus Gdansk ) from Berlin and the return was the same.

All 4 passport checks were rather perfunctory as every one was checked. In 2001 the same perfunctory check was experienced when going from Nürnberg to Pilsen. That entire compartment coach had only 6 passengers, ie, 6 German kids of 19 years old and I, the foreigner.

@WengenK - I'm not talking about countries actually leaving the Schengen agreement but rather imposing their border checks on an emergency basis as the rules allow albeit on a 6 monthly term. In doing so it effectively puts an end to frictionless freedom of movement between that country and other EU countries. If all or most EU countries do this then it means the end of the Schengen agreement without any country formally withdrawing from it.

@JC: I replied to your "null and void" comment. This is not what is going to be the case here though.

Regarding my comment that this is just "signalling": These border checks do not amount to an effective control of the border. They are just show. Theatre. So the politicians can show they are doing something.

When Switzerland did this in Chiasso for a while they picked up the same persons several times a day, put them back on the train to Italy, where they just tried again...

A few years ago on a train between Austria and Italy, a group of border guards got on the train.

The train was made up of compartments. When the guard came to my compartment, they first interviewd the guy sitting across from me. He had a German passport but looked more middle eastern. He was questioned a bit. Then the guard went to the couple sitting next to the window. They also looked middle eastern and got questioned even more.

Then it was my turn. I started to hand him my US passport, he took a look at is as I held it, waived his hand as if saying "not necessary" and left the compartment.

A couple of years ago in southeastern France, a group of police officers got on the train and walked through. They didn't seem to talk to anyone. When we got to Carcassonne, they went through the station asking specific people for their identification. I just left to get a taxi.

The worst was in Stockholm two years ago. Arriving on a flight from Athens, everyone had to go through passport control. I was grilled for about 10 minutes about my plans. I had to show my air ticket out of Stockholm to Helsinki for a few days later and my air ticket out of Schengen. Plus a lot of questions of why I was there, what were my plans, etc. In all my years traveling anywhere, this was the most questioning I had ever had. And I was arriving from a Schengen country. I wasn't prepared for any of this as I didn't expect passport control.

This may surprise a few people. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen-borders-and-visa/schengen-area/temporary-reintroduction-border-control_en

WengenK what you describe isn’t virtue signaling. If you are correct then it is political marketing. But I have never bothered to do the research to come to a conclusion. I have seen, and I have lived in, two countries where it has been proven that controlling the borders can be done to great effect. I suspect that the Germans and the other European nations are at least as competent. But to judge that I would need their stated goals and objectives and some data. Until then, I stay silent and when visiting, respect what every they are trying to do which every good tourist should do. Further from the point of view of tourism, just carry your passport at all times and go with the flow. Worst that can happen is you lose a few minutes at a border.

Regarding my comment that this is just "signalling": These border checks do not amount to an effective control of the border. They are just show. Theatre. So the politicians can show they are doing something.

I would say that the results from Germany demonstrates that it's more than just theatre:

"...within five days of imposing restrictions on its borders police detected almost 900 unauthorised entries, of which 640 people were turned back, 17 extremists were identified, and 114 arrest warrants were executed..."

That's quite a result in just five days. The federal police are pushing for an extension beyond the six month period as they are pleased with just how effective the checks have been and I suspect that their request will be approved.

It's fine with me that the Germans and French have resorted to checking passports, which in a way reminds me of the old days prior to Schengen when crossing from one border to the next, say Germany to Austria, you had to pull out your passport and then watch how people would fumble around awkwardly looking for it with an impatient border person looking on.

It was whimsical anyway. In 2014 doing a day trip from Düsseldorf to Amsterdam, I was checked. Once over the Dutch border 2 Dutch officials, male and female boarded, addressed everyone where I was sitting in English (obviously) that passports and visas would be checked. No random checking or any perfunctory guise of that, every single person was asked to produce the passport and the visas if that was also called for and questioned.

It is totally immaterial to me if this renewed checking is merely for show. The difference is this is policy now. As such I can expect to be checked randomly, diligently, perfunctorily, ie absolutely no problem, or even questioned on how long I've been in Schengen zone or where I entered Schengen given my arrival date. There might even be a chance to engage in some mundane comments in the target language.

This post seems to be quoting the UK Daily Mail which per Wikipedia "In February 2017, the English Wikipedia banned the use of the Daily Mail as a reliable source.[25][26][27]" Now I realize Wiki is not exactly the gold standard for fact checking but, yeah, it's better than the daily mail.

The only other match I am getting from google quoting the original content is "Schengen.news" which appears to have just plagiarized the UK Daily Mail. No attribution and exactly the same content.

A follow up post also appears to quote the Daily Mail. While the Daily Mail is sometimes accurate-- like the US's national enquirer--, fact checking and accuracy seem to be secondary to sensationalizing and excitation. Still, I can see this story is an attention grabber and it probably has some truth in it.

If I am mistaken, my apologies. I will happily remove my possibly inaccurate research if shown the error in my ways. I checked it out because it seems like it could be true and maybe I should keep an eye out for it in relation to my own travels.

The point here for travelers is that the landscape for frictionless borders in Schengen may be changing. That may be true. (It also may not be true. )

But what do I know? Not much.

Happy travels!