If the UK joins Schengen

Ever travelled from France to Germany, from Switzerland to Norway, or from Spain to Italy? Those of you who have, will have noticed that there are no border controls and no waiting at passport control, whether one travels by air, road, rail or sea. This is because these countries and several other countries (to be precise 22 EU countries, plus Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland) have implemented the Schengen Agreement fully, which includes the abolition of passport controls, although one still needs to bring identification when travelling. Contrary to popular myth, states do not need to have ID cards to implement the Schengen Agreement, passports can still be used as ID, and photo-card driving licenses ought to be accepted as ID too.

By contrast, only journeys between the UK and Ireland are free from passport controls. Journeys from the UK to France, Spain, Germany, or other full Schengen member states still have passport controls and the long queues which can come with them. The UK has only partially opted-in to Schengen, just to the police and judiciary co-operation part, the part which benefits the authorities. The UK has not opted into the part which benefits ordinary members of the public the most, the passport control part which would abolish passport controls for travel to fellow Schengen states. In 1999, the UK House of Lords Select Committee on European Communities recommended that the UK fully participates in Schengen.

If the UK joined the Schengen Area fully, one could take a flight from Manchester to Madrid, from Newcastle to Rome, or from Edinburgh to Athens, and not have to wait at passport control, although there would still be baggage check-ins and security checks like for a local flight or a flight to Ireland today. For sea travel border controls be retained for journeys to non-Schengen countries, but Schengen and non-Schengen departures and arrivals would need to be distinguished from each other, as passport control would be abolished for Schengen countries (for "Ireland" today, read "Schengen" in the future).

At the Eurotunnel entrance, border control posts would be abolished or abandoned, and a single road sign notifying the country being entered (i.e. just "United Kingdom" or "France") would be erected. And of course for train journeys, no more waiting at passport control (which would be abolished), no more waiting at airport style departure lounges (which would be redundant), and no need to arrive 30 min early - one could just board a train to potentially anywhere in Europe just like any other local train service, not only Paris, Brussels, Lille, or Calais. Much more direct destinations would be possible than if UK continued to stay outside of Schengen, and eliminating permanent border controls, security checks, and airport style departure lounges will save money in the long term.

Indeed, ordinary members of the public travelling by train in particular, will benefit a lot if the UK joined Schengen. There would be more productivity, as the waiting time is reduced considerably. Living in Lille but working in London, or living in Kent and working in Calais becomes feasible. It makes it much easier for Eurostar to expand and provide services to many other destinations, there could be direct train services to Nice, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt. Similarly other operators including SNCF, Deutsche Bahn or Thalys will also find it much easier to provide services to London from any station.

And if the UK expands its own high speed rail network, in addition to joining Schengen, one could even have a direct train from Manchester, Leeds, or Edinburgh to Milan, Nice, Berlin, Amsterdam or any other destination with any operator who provides services to and from there, for example Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, Renfe, Thalys, Veolia, or Transmanche Métro (a proposed service to serve destinations in Kent in the UK and Nord-Pas de Calais in France). Indeed one could be able to travel from anywhere on the high speed rail lines in the UK, to many destinations in Europe. As well as this, there could also be overnight sleeper trains to many destinations elsewhere in Europe from anywhere in the UK in future.

Schengen states can currently put up temporary border controls for up to 30 days, as has been done by several states already, most recently by France which sealed its border with Italy as a result of French government concerns about migrants being granted temporary residence permits in Italy. Furthermore, it has been reported that the French government wishes to make it easier to temporarily suspend the Schengen Agreement if need be, as a result of this. The UK government would also have the right to put up temporarily put up border controls under exceptional circumstances, and so would the Irish government, if both the UK and Ireland were full members of the Schengen Area. It is presumed that both the UK and the Republic of Ireland would join Schengen on the same day.

In general, Eurosceptics will be unhappy with the UK joining Schengen. While it is true that joining Schengen would make the UK a fuller participant in the EU, this would put the UK on a par with Sweden and Denmark, both of whom also stay outside the Eurozone. It is also worth noting that Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland are not in the EU yet they have also signed up fully to Schengen, although goods passing through Norway, Iceland, or Switzerland to or from EU member states still have to go through customs, which would not happen for goods moving between EU member states.

Some might say "but what about security?". I would say to them that freedom of movement within and between countries is an example of a freedom, a human right and a civil liberty. Freedoms and civil liberties need to be preserved and enhanced, they should not be sacrificed in the name of so-called "security" or for any other reason. The UK joining Schengen would give UK citizens freedom of movement to fellow Schengen countries without passport controls, but at the same time it is important that civil liberties are preserved, so no need for ID cards, and especially no biometric information should be stored in anything.

So in summary, as a member of the public, I would suggest that joining Schengen fully would benefit ordinary members of the public, as this gives people greater freedom to travel to other Schengen states, no more passport controls, and train journeys in particular would benefit a lot. However, what would be ideal is the freedom to travel to any country in the world, using any mode of transport, without going through passport or border control, and without having to go through security checks (especially the unsafe and privacy violating full-body scanners in use in American and some UK airports). Now that's what I would call real freedom of movement. Ironically, there were no airport security checks until the 1950s, and until 1914 it was possible to travel from Paris to St Petersburg without any passport controls.