Temporary Schengen "suspension" around Europe

Airborne_Again wrote:

I’m a bit surprised that a EU country has the concept of “state of emergency” which grants the government extraordinary powers. Do other countries than France have that? Sweden doesn’t.

Doesn’t Sweden now require passport checks in Denmark before crossing the bridge by road or rail from Copenhagen to Malmö?

AnthonyQ wrote:

Doesn’t Sweden now require passport checks in Denmark before crossing the bridge by road or rail from Copenhagen to Malmö?

Yes, but that has nothing to do with a “state of emergency”. It is according to the Schengen treaty.

Stephan_Schwab wrote:

I did learn elsewhere that even if you travel intra-Schengen you are doing cross-border travel and should carry ID

You should carry a photo ID and proof that you are legally in the country even traveling within a country (even if you just go to the bakery). Otherwise you risk a few hours’ detention while they check your identity. My wife learned that the hard way at L2K.

Aviathor wrote:

You should carry a photo ID and proof that you are legally in the country even traveling within a country (even if you just go to the bakery). Otherwise you risk a few hours’ detention while they check your identity. My wife learned that the hard way at L2K.

Laws differ. Some countries AFAIU require this of everyone. Other countries only require it of non-citizens. Which of course can lead to “interesting” situations as you can’t readily prove that you are a citizen without carrying an ID.

And some countries don’t require any ID to be carried (Ireland being one).

Airborne_Again 09-May-16 12:33 #08
I’m a bit surprised that a EU country has the concept of “state of emergency” which grants the government extraordinary powers. Do other countries than France have that? Sweden doesn’t.

According to this (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen/reintroduction-border-control/index_en.htm), Sweden does have the power and has introduced a temporary suspension of Schengen until 7 June 2016.

State of emergency comes to an end on May 26th…

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/manuel-valls-veut-prolonger-l-etat-d-urgence-jusqu-a-la-fin-de-l-euro_1784422.html

Will almost certainly be extended till after Euro 2016.

We had a club fly out to Lee on Solent over the weekend, and when we stopped in Laval the customs people had come specially to check us (I had faxed them before).

Has a chat with the officers, and for the moment, everybody flying in or out of France must be checked. Heavy fines can be (and are, apparently) imposed for non-compliance.

derek wrote:

Sweden does have the power and has introduced a temporary suspension of Schengen until 7 June 2016.

Of course Sweden has that power. Every Schengen country does. What I meant is that under the Swedish constitution, there is no way for the government to get extraordinary powers or suspend legislation by declaring a “state of emergency” or somesuch. That concept simply has no meaning in Sweden.

Bordeaux_Jim wrote:

We had a club fly out to Lee on Solent over the weekend, and when we stopped in Laval the customs people had come specially to check us (I had faxed them before).

Has a chat with the officers, and for the moment, everybody flying in or out of France must be checked. Heavy fines can be (and are, apparently) imposed for non-compliance.

FUD

The AIP entry for Laval LFOV says:
Customs: O/R by FAX PN 24 HR with ATS not later than previous working day during ATS SKED.

A flight from France to Lee on Solent must be conducted from a port of entry in France as it is subject to immigration control as per the Schengen treaty, the UK being outside Schengen. Customs/immigration have instructions to check absolutely everyone crossing the Schengen borders. In many places they do not have the capacity to do so. At Le Touquet for example, there are border checks quite frequently these days, but not every day. It is however a port of entry and requires only a few hours PN which is great.

At Carcassonne there is no PN required, but a couple of crews coming from outside Schengen purposedly went to see them. They did not look particularly interested, but since we were there they took note of the names and passport numbers. Others did not bother to look them up, and that was OK too. If they had been interested they could have checked them on departure but AFAIK they did not.

As far as flights across the French borders are concerned, as usual you have to follow published procedures as published in AIP or by NOTAM. There are few French airports/airfields that require PN for ALL international flights, even within Schengen (by NOTAM). I listed those I positively know about here. In the absence of any NOTAM to that effect, you can fly from Laval to any other Schengen country without notifying anyone.

Although the state of emergency measures call for re-activating the border checkpoints, whether land, air or sea, all border checkpoints are not manned 24/7. Under the state of emergency there is a higher probability that someone will take an interest in you, even for a domestic flight, but the French borders are still permeable. There is no reason to exagerate the situation. Follow AIP and NOTAMs, and everything will be OK. The worst that can happen is being slightly delayed because of an unforeseen identity check.

Airborne_Again wrote:

Laws differ. Some countries AFAIU require this of everyone.

I did not state it is mandatory. I wrote “you should”. If you cannot prove who you are, you can be detained until the authorities have established your identity and legal status in the country. I have learned this the hard way twice, although I got away with very little trouble:

• While I was living in California I made a trip across SOCAL, Nevada and Arizona. One of the places we visited was Tucson, AZ where we rented a car and drove to Tombstone. On the road we came across a border patrol stopping traffic in the opposite direction, and on our way back a few hours later, they were unfortunately still there. None of us had ID proving we were legally in the US (passports or US driver’s licenses). I had a temporary CA driver’s license, a social security card and my Norwegian driver’s license. My friend had his Norwegian driver’s license. This was on a Friday afternoon. Since we were both blonds with blue eyes, the officer gave us a lecture, said he could detain us over the weekend pending comparing in front of a judge the following Monday, and let us go.
• A few weeks ago at Le Touquet there was a high number of customs officers waiting in the terminal building. It turned out my wife had left her ID in another purse at home and they spent 20 minutes attempting to verify her identity while patient Brits were piling up behind us. Fortunately I had a scan of her ID that they accepted whilst making sure to tell us how generous they were doing us this favour. What the customs officers also told me was that they were surprised their colleagues in Pontoise had not detected my wife did not have ID. I have personally never seen any law enforcement in Pontoise, although I know a friend of mine was subject to a ramp check recently (they were interested in A/C VAT status – N-reg).

State of Emergency in France extended to 26 July 2016.
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen/reintroduction-border-control/index_en.htm

So all flights in and out of France, including to/from Schengen subject to immigration controls.