Zoll - CC / Flickr

Enough is enough. Why, oh why, are we re-establishing border controls in Europe, at least as far as night train passengers are concerned?

On the Amsterdam-München CityNightLine service last weekend Netherlands Police boarded the train at Venlo and shone a flashlight in everyone’s faces at the border.

Last night it was even more ludicrous – police controls (by French and Italian police) at the railway station at Paris Bercy before boarding the overnight train to Firenze SMN. I asked one of the police why the checks were happening and he looked at me as if I was from a strange planet and said “c’est la police étrangère”, meaning what exactly? Then on the train the cabin attendant demanded we hand in identity cards and tickets to him for the border checks, and the train did not pass via Switzerland as far as I am aware…

Sorry, but what is going on here? This is also not the first time I’ve faced similar checks either. And why rail passengers? Are similar checks being re-introduced on the roads as well? For – at least as far as trains are concerned – Schengen is a myth.

CC / Flickr

There’s nothing that manages to get my annoyed quite the way that border guards do. Especially when they are fat, pompous Austrians with a gun in a holster at their hip that greet you with ‘Grüß Gott’ and control your passport a few minutes after your train has left Brenner at the border between Italy and Austria.

Why am I especially annoyed? Theoretically, Italy and Austria are in Schengen and border checks should not take place. So instead of a ‘Grenzkontrolle’ you get the normal police asking you for ID just after the border.

Under Austrian law there is no obligation to carry a passport but in Schengen you have to “seine Identität der Behörde durch geeignete Dokumente nachweisen können” – be able to prove your identity with an approved document, so it’s essentially a border control Brenner, there’s no way to resist.

Anyway the pompous fat git had a glint in his eye when he took a look at my passport; it’s so old and worn that the coat of arms has worn off. ‘We’ve got one here’ he was thinking as he spoke my name and passport number loudly into his walkie-talkie to HQ without explaining to me what was going on.

When I then asked him – in German – what he was doing as Italy and Austria are in Schengen and hence there should not be a border control he quickly lost the smirk. “Das ist eine Schengenkontrolle! Wir sind nicht an der Grenze!”

So what, I asked him, is any different now than before Schengen? A control a few kilometres into Austria rather than on the border. Oh, and by the way I’m a EU politics teacher and I know my rights (not quite true, but it had the desired effect!) His mate on the other end of the walkie talkie had of course confirmed that I was legitimate, and he gave my passport back to me with a snort and left.

Wilkommen in Österreich!