The problem here is less the increasingly-incorrectly-named-temporary reintroduction of border controls/customs checks.
The problem is that, other than for road traffic where this is meaningless unless they bother to actually check you, which in reality they don’t in 99% of all cases, for airports you have prior notice requirements and a requirement to seek them out rather then seeking you out. This may or may not be allowed under the treaties, but is highly in convenient and risky because it is easy to get wrong. And there is no realistic legal recourse.
LFHNflightstudent wrote:
That is indeed the name fo the Thread, but again. It is WRONG and is simply false information that should be fact checked. Schengen is not suspended, not temporary not permanent. Some states have temporary (and that should be kept a close eye on as the French have extended 4 times so far…) re-introduced border controls. This is allowed AS A LAST RESORT under the wider Schengen Agreement.
Of course you’re right in that it is not the actual Schengen treaty which is suspended, but as the abolishment of border controls is the most important and visible effect of the treaty I think it is perfectly reasonable to say colloquially that reintroducing border controls is “Suspending Schengen” even if that’s not technically correct.
France is not alone in misusing this possibility. I’d say that in many (most?) cases the reason has not been a last resort for national security but rather to make a point in domestic politics.
[EDIT: Clarification of first sentence above.]
Airborne_Again wrote:
Of course you’re right in that it is not the actual Schengen treaty which is suspended, but the abolishment of border controls is the most important and visible effect of the treaty so I think it is perfectly reasonable to call it “Suspending Schengen” even if it is not technically correcy.
But that isn’t really the case. I don’t buy the narrative at all that this is about making a point for domestic or even EU politics. Our little puddle jumper traffic is not even 1/1000th of the traffic that crosses internal borders (bit of an oxymoron) daily. Here in Geneva alone over 180K people cross the border for work on a daily basis. Unbothered, unchecked, and blissfully unaware of any so called re-introduction of borders. The reality is there is no reintroduction of borders, there is a lot of nonsense going on wrt General Aviation and that is a royal PITA, but that doesn’t mean we need to accept it. I fly across borders quite a lot within the Schengen Area and even to the UK and the reality is, that on the ground (my latest example for the UK) is that no one really cares…
LFHNflightstudent wrote:
the reality is, that on the ground (my latest example for the UK) is that no one really cares…
You’re right, the actual Douaniers you speak to, really dont care.
BUT.. The problem is that at some point someone running various airports decided to interpret things a little differently to perhaps what is actually the law/rules – possibly either following an experience where there was an incident or as part of a bum-covering exercise, which now in place, no-one will change.
Regards, SD..
You’re right, the actual Douaniers you speak to, really dont care
I agree on that, they don’t give a hoot, the 4 cases I personally recall were mostly from “private airport staff” then things went to customs who just did not give a damn !
I don’t know the exact details about the case where the Dutch pilot paid a 1500€ fine in Dijon? I doubt it’s just lack of customs 24h PNR? maybe more details under the rug there? but I am 100% sure it started badly with discussion with some “gate keeper” or “airport dog”…
You are likely get told-off or reported by airport staff for lack of PNR to customs, but you get off the hook easily 
The PNR for customs is emailed to a customs address, am I correct? So the airport staff don’t see it? I agree that most of the time the douaniers don’t really care about the odd light aircraft coming from the Schengen area.
They might take more interest in the private jet.
I have read and re read what the AIP and the EU law says about air traffic coming to an from POE from the Schengen area and I too can see no basis for the a €1500 fine. Even taking into account the temporary measures over Covid and terrorism (is it border force that deals with these?) lack of a PNR to the douaniers should surely only be misdemeanour and at the vary worst (although I can see no justification for this even) a €150 fine should have been imposed.
I think 15 € should have been the maximum. Unfortunately nobody asked me.
I wouldn’t disagree with €15 but then we would never have heard of the problem:)
Maybe there is the faint possibility the fine was because goods were actually brought across a border that are not for personal use? Such as cigarettes or alcohol?
Alright, let’s quote the entire text from the Dutch facebook group, as this might be of interest to us all. The father of the affected pilot claims to have protested against the 1500€ fine fee and got following response from French authorities:
Dear sir,
The results of the investigations have led to the conclusion that all the rules have been respected by the customs service which controlled your flight. In theory no prior notice is requested for an intra-Schengen flight excepted when internal border control is reintroduced, which is the case for several months (le Code Frontière Schengen prévoit au titre III -Art 5 que les modalités de franchissement des frontières extérieures prévues au titre II (Art 25 et 32), s’appliquent lorsque le contrôle aux frontières intérieures est réintroduit)
Consequently, prior notice flight shall be sent in order that customs service could effectively control people and goods in airports. The lack of prior notice is fined 1500 euros according to Schengen Borders Code, French Customs Code (art. 410) and the national decree dated 2017/10/24 (art. 5) referring to border crossing.
Due to these explanations, refund is not grounded
Yours sincerely,
(Anonymized)
Secrétaire Général
Assistant de Prévention
Direction Régionale des Douanes de Dijon
12 rue Montmartre
21000 DIJON
Tel. (Anonymized)
Furthermore, the author claimed the pilot did sent a flightplan 5 hours prior arrival, but it seems he forgot to inform customs 5 hours PNR. And yes, the flight started in the Netherlands (which is a full EU and Schengen member), so there seems to be no special case. We’re talking about a normal intra-Schengen and intra-EU flight.
P.S. I did anonymize name and phone number from the quote.
For the full picture, the following NOTAM was active during the mentioned flight:
COVID-19: PASSENGERS RESTRICTIONS I – FRANCE MAINTAINS CONTROLS AT ITS BORDERS AND RESTRICTS TRAVEL, IN ACCORDANCE WITH DECREE 2021-699 DATED 1 JUNE 2021 MODIFIED, ORDER DATED 7 JUNE 2021 MODIFIED IDENTIFYING AREAS OF SARS-COV-2 CIRCULATION, AND THE PRIME MINISTER INSTRUCTION NR6268/SG DATED 19 MAY 2021. II – DEFINITIONS 1 FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS, ARE DESIGNATED AS: – GREEN: MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, ALBANIA, ANDORRA, SAUDI ARABIA, AUSTRALIA, BAHREIN, BOSNIA, BRUNEI, CANADA, COMOROS, HONG KONG, ICELAND, ISRAEL, JAPAN, JORDANIA, KOSOVO, LIBANON, LIECHSTENSTEIN, NORTH MACEDONIA, MONACO, MONTENEGRO, NEW ZEALAND, PART 1 OF 15
And according to a reply in the original post, someone contacted AOPA France and got following answer:
Effectively, since the COVID Pandemic, France has made amendments to the way the Schengen treaty is applied. But one question remains: “How were these changes notified nationally and internationally to pilots and other Custom officials throughout Europe” There is a case to be made that no information was specifically addressed to the pilot community within and externally to France.
Facts that are irrefutable:
Filing a flight Plan does not constitute a formal notification to customs: This is precisely why customs coordinates are mentioned in aerodrome information The mention “Request customs” in zone 18 of an FPL is not a valid Customs services request I would be happy, upon request of your member, to discuss the matter with the head of customs here in France, escalating from the regional office that made that decision
