General framework
The European Union has the objective of the creation of an area without
internal frontiers in which persons may move freely, irrespective of their
nationality.
A number of measures accompanying the abolition of controls at the
internal borders of the Union have, however, not yet been implemented,
(notably measures for harmonizing checks at external borders and the
strengthening of certain detailed arrangements for co-operation between
police and judicial authorities). These measures are aimed at reinforcing
security within the area without internal borders.
You may still, therefore, be subject to certain checks when crossing a
border between two EU Member States.
On the other hand, those checks may not go beyond what is permissible
under current Community legislation. You may therefore cross the internal
borders of the Union simply on presentation of a valid passport or
identity card. In principle no question may be put to you as to the
purpose of your journey, your mean of subsistence, etc.
Moreover, there are now channels reserved for EU citizens and the
members of their family at most airports and seaports. Their purpose is to
enable EU citizens to cross borders more rapidly.
Passport checks in the case of members of your family who are not
nationals of a Member State of the European Union may, where applicable,
be aimed at establishing whether a visa has been issued and their status as a member of the
family of a national of an EU Member State, i.e. the status that carries
with it the right to enter the territory in question.
Moreover, in order to guarantee the security of their citizens, the
competent authorities of the Member States may at all times and throughout
their territory carry out identity checks, in accordance with national
provisions.
Please note, therefore, that if you are not in possession of the
necessary documents when checks are carried out, the competent authorities
of the Member State to which you are traveling are entitled to turn you
back at the frontier or take action to expel you from the territory in
which you are entering.
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Special agreements
Some Member States have, in the context of special international
agreements, already abolished or made more flexible the checks on persons
at their common frontiers.
The Schengen Agreement provides for the abolition of checks on persons
crossing a land border or who fly or take a ferry between two Schengen
countries. Under the Agreement, however, Member States retain the right to
invoke a safeguard clause. This allows them to reintroduce temporarily
checks on persons at their frontiers should this be necessary on grounds
of public order or national security.
Similarly, under the terms of the Common Travel Area, there are in
principle no longer any checks on persons traveling between the United
Kingdom and Ireland. Moreover, in the context of the Nordic Passport
Union, Denmark, Finland and Sweden no longer carry out systematic checks
on persons at their common frontiers.
However, although these agreements have made it possible to render more
flexible or eliminate altogether checks at the borders between the
countries that have signed them, the Member States concerned nevertheless
retain the right, on the basis of their national legislation, to carry out
identity checks throughout their territory on grounds of public order.
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source: European Commission
