> it was always more difficult to go to/from the UK
This is not true. You obviously haven't travelled many times from UK to other european countries (or viceversa)...
This is not true. You obviously haven't travelled many times from UK to other european countries (or viceversa)...
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.
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.
Schengen agreement mandates no border check, but the UK is not part of it, so of course they can have border check
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.
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
Because even though you have the right, some people don't. And they only know which is which after you present your documents.
I guess the only case in when they can refuse entry is if you are wanted by police or something (or maybe not even then)
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".
Now try to enter LAX or JFK with your national ID and without a visa...
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.
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.