Switzerland joins Schengen
 

I just read about this yesterday:

Thu 27/11/08 14:48 - The European Union will lift its land borders
with Switzerland on Dec. 12. Travellers will be able to drive to and
from non-EU member Switzerland without showing their passports at its
land borders with EU states France, Italy, Austria and Germany.

Switzerland is the 25th country to scrap border controls in the
Schengen club of European states, which includes non-EU members Norway
and Iceland and covers an area of 3.6 million sq km (1.4 million sq
miles).

The EU plans to drop controls at airports for flights to and from
Switzerland on March 29, according to a draft document seen by Reuters
Press Agency. That date will be confirmed after a last visit to Swiss
airports by EU experts.

Britain and Ireland have chosen not to take part in the Schengen area.
Bulgaria and Romania do not yet fulfil all the security requirements
and Cyprus has asked for a delay before lifting its borders.

An example of what Schengen does:

Schengen countries use a database storing names of criminal suspects
and stolen cars for checks at their external borders.

http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redac...81127_schengen

What that means in practical terms to me, as a US traveler, is now Switzerland is part of the 90-day stay limitation.

"Travellers will be able to drive to and from non-EU member Switzerland without showing their passports at its land borders with EU states France, Italy, Austria and Germany."

Strange. I live in Switzerland and we haven't had to show our passports at the borders for years now.

Yes, most motorists are waved through when the border point is manned (usually weekdays only, and then only sporadcally). But the guard does have the power to stop any drivers and ask for documents, and search cars for contrabands etc. Last year I saw at a crossing point in Basel a Swiss-registered car being pulled aside and searched.

Alec, that remains the case even within Schengen.
My first thought was one more country that Sandy456 can't go to :)

&quot;<i>My first thought was one more country that Sandy456 can't go to </i>&quot;

Exactly! :-d

&gt;)

Beaupeep sez &quot;Strange. I live in Switzerland and we haven't had to show our passports at the borders for years now.&quot;

I guess s/he means border crossings by road or on foot, at those crossings that get so busy that agents simply wave traffic through?

The same has not been my experience in recent years.

Arriving on the TGV from Paris into Geneva for example, there is a stringent passport control down below the platform - there is no way to enter the train station without passing through that narrow passage with scrutinizing agents checking passports and such, and asking about content of luggge.

Ditto in ZRH airport - have never arrived (although in this case always from overseas) without having to show the passport.

And even making entry from France into Switzerland at such a remote location like La Cure in the Jura mountains above Nyon, on a minor country road, the uniforms were out in force, even asking about what kind of shopping we had done while in France...

What will no longer be done is the &quot;systematic&quot; checking of personal data. But: There will not be unattended border crossings. Switzerland is not in the EU and has different laws when it comes to customs, importing of goods etc. So there will be checks of such, and in the process the personal data can also be subject to checks.

Currently, of the 600,000 persons crossing into Switzerland daily, only about 15% have their ID documents checked, and 3% have to undergo a more intense scrutiny.

The secondary mobile checks (called &quot;Schleierfahndung&quot; - &quot;veiled investigation&quot;) - mostly done by cantons via their police, will still be in operation. A car may be stopped and documents checked already well into Switzerland, or a passenger on a train may be called upon to identify him/herself, out of the blue, not by train personnel but by border police or, more likely, by canton police.

The authorities amplify that a passport or identity card (quite common, serving as ID like a driver's license does in the US) should still be carried - it may or may not have to be produced.

A big part of this overall rapprochement is Switzerland's participation in the SIS (as of last August), the computer system that helps to identify suspects, fugitives, stolen vehicles etc. in seconds across the entire EU, so border-hopping, which is much easier now of course, is no longer necessarily an advantage to the bad guys.

At the airports the flow of passengers will physically be separated into &quot;to/from Schengen destinations&quot; and &quot;to/from beyond Schengen&quot;, and the latter will be subject to document checks and to random SIS look-ups, while the former may pass except for checks of goods. This will take time to implement and should be ready by March 29 when most airlines switch to their summe timetables.

There are also still at least two provisos for the longer term.

For one: The outcome of the national vote in Switzerland on the Personenfreiz&uuml;gigkeit (free movement of individuals, next February), if negative, may impact Switzerland's position vis-&agrave;-vis the Schengen agreement. The EU Justizkommissar Mr. Jacques Barrot stated that a No outcome would cause problems, but &quot;the EU had confidence in a Yes outcome&quot;...

Another potential wrinkle: Next summer the Swiss will vote on the introduction of the biometric passports that involves a databank on personal data. A No vote could also jeopardize the Schengen participation that will begin on Dec. 12 for level crossings and on March 29 for air traffic.

So while for the moment the borders will be open (barring checks where an agent feels he has a reason, and occasional random checks), things may yet change again in the future.

A humorous aspect to all this: Because Liechtenstein has not associated itself with the EU, the Swiss border with Liechtenstein will be the most heavily checked, more heavily than the other borders recently. It counts as an &quot;external Schengen border&quot;. If you know Liechtenstein then you appreciate the bizarreness of this...