Visisting Other countries in The EU withut a Passport

Stevee

Can anyone explain the legalites of visiting another EU country withouta Passprt. I got the Ferry to france last week. But was refused entry on the grounds that I did not have a valid Passport with me. I had brought my drivers License as ID. Is a Passpoert required to vist otrher Eu countries

Hagar

You can travel to the UK with ID but with no Passport.
Everywhere else requires a passport.

WexCan

Or get a little winey coloured book and wave it, in my experiences they've never looked properly.

zoro

I thought that the one of the points of the EU was the free movement between each member state?
I'm obviously very much mistaken, but I was under the impression that no European citizen needed a passport to travel between member countries

*goes to read up on it*

WexCan

How do they know of you're European then?

gaf1983

zoro wrote:

I thought that the one of the points of the EU was the free movement between each member state?
I'm obviously very much mistaken, but I was under the impression that no European citizen needed a passport to travel between member countries

*goes to read up on it*

You're right. In theory you don't, but actually you some form of identification to show that you are entitled to travel without a passport - that is why, for example, it is sufficient for French or German people to show their national identification card rather than a passport when they travel to another EU state.

So basically you need a passport to prove that you don't need actually need a passport to cross borders.

leeroybrown

We are not officially part of the Schengen and as such can actually still be subject to full border controls.

Zebra3

Britain opted out of the agreement on freedom of movement when it was coming in elsewhere in the EU, so Ireland did as well.

If Ireland had not opted out you'd need a passport to go from Dundalk to Newry.

Chris P Duck

Does the freedom of movement not just mean that you dont need a visa to enter the country. As Wexcan said, how do they know if your european if you dont ahve a passport.

robinph

You don't need a passport to get between Ireland and UK. You don't need a passport to get between France/ Germany/ Holland/ Belgium etc Schengen states if you are an EU national. You do need a passport though to get between the two seperate free travel zones.

Mr.D.Leprachaun

(I haven't read the whole thread so sorry if this has been posted already)

As far as I know the Shengen agreement allows people to travel freely around the EU without any ID but Britain opted out and our government decided to do the same as Britain is our closest neighbour by far. The deal with only needing ID to go to Britain is a seperate one.

macguch

No you have to have a passport for all countries except England, other IDs can be forged far too easily

Pythia

That's not true. You can use a National ID card if your country has one.

HelterSkelter

Yeah, you need a passport for everywhere except the UK. I got away with it going to Amsterdam before though. I forgot the passport, managed to get to Amsterdam airport without being checked for ID but got stopped by customs there. They allowed me to get a copy of my passport faxed through and then let me in!! This was post 9/11, they must have been having a good day. They actually were having a laugh with me and slagging me over the last Ireland Holland game.