•Written by The Editors• ••Monday•, 15 •December• 2008 21:37•
Ever since last Friday December 12, 2008, the land borders between Switzerland and the European Schengen Area countries – in the case of the Lake Geneva and Southern Alps region, France and Italy – have no more controls. Well, sort of…The security checks at Cointrin’s Geneva International will remain enforced – at least until the end of March, 2009 - as the Swiss-French airport will serve as one of Schengen’s main air traffic entry points from the outside. For the land crossings, however, Swiss and other nationals with valid passports, ID’s, residence permits and Swiss or Schengen visas should not have to show their documents. In practise, however, it is another matter.
While the new agreement provides for the free movement of people in the now 25 countries (including Switzerland) of the Schengen area, the Swiss are still monitoring documents at checkpoints, such as Ferney-Voltaire and Meyrin, while unmanned border crossings, notably Versonnex-Collex-Bossy are shut, as before, at 1900 hours. This has made for a lot of disappointed residents who live and work on both sides of the frontier, and who cross over on a regular basis. Finally, we all thought, we can live as normal human beings in a world where archaic border controls have been eliminated.
Officially, the Swiss maintain they are now part of Schengen albeit not fully from the de jure point of view. Berne’s membership in the passport-free zone will only be formally confirmed on March 29, 2009. However, the European Union has warned Switzerland that the future of the “no borders” zone would be compromised if the Swiss people reject the agreement in a national referendum in February 2009. Switzerland voted to join the Schengen area, which includes non-EU countries Iceland and Norway, in a 2005 referendum. Schengen is the name of the town in Luxembourg, where it was signed in 1985 on a boat in the middle of the Moselle river, which forms the border between Luxembourg and Germany.
There is no uncertain nervousness within the Swiss government that there is growing disenchantment among many Swiss for more open borders, particularly given the rise in crossborder crime, such as burglaries, car thefts and physical assault. Much of this is blamed on foreigners. The referendum will not only take into account recent changes in the Schengen agreements, but also planned incorporation of Bulgaria and Romania in 2011, both countries regarded as harbouring criminal networks penetrating western Europe. As Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf pointed out, it would be difficult to remain in Schengen without free circulation.
For the moment, one wonders what changes Schengen has really brought into effect. The Swiss maintain that they still have the right ask for IDs, or, as the frontier guards at Ferney put it, “you are meant to carry your documents with you at all times and show them if requested.” As Switzerland is not a member of the European Union’s customs union, you are also not permitted to indulge in the crossborder smuggling of meat, dairy and other products from Carrefour, Champion, and Leclerc. You are still only allowed to bring in 300 CHF worth of undeclared merchandise per person. The official Swiss slogan now stands as: "Schengen has arrived; the customs' controls remain!"
Likewise, the French and Italian customs authorities, who will focus more on mobile customs checks at the traditional border crossings but also on an ad hoc basis around the towns and in the countryside, retain the right to hit you for 19.6 % VAT – plus a fine - if you dare bring in cheaper electronic goods from Switzerland (which only have 7.5 % VAT), such as widescreen TV monitors, DVD players and computers.
So Schengen’s “no borders” approach remains a bit of a myth. We are not really seeing the open borders with closed up customs offices as one finds along the main highways between northern France and Luxembourg, or France and Germany, or Belgium and the Netherlands. Barely three days after the accords went into effect, the Swiss side of the border point at Cern-Meyrin was completely clogged early evening as a single female customs officer halted or glared at each passing vehicle heading into France...
In principal, Geneva airport should be operating two steams of passengers. Schengen and Swiss nationals, including foreigners with C and other permits, should not be checked when they fly in and out of Geneva. Only those coming in from North America or from other countries outside the Schengen area are required to go through passport control. For practical reasons, however, all passengers whether departing or arriving will have to be checked as before, until 29 March, 2009, that is, when the airport goes on summer schedule.
The new agreement has required a major 40 million Swiss franc investment to bring Geneva airport in line with Schengen. In particular, the Swiss have been stepping up security measures in collaboration with their French (but also Italian, Austrian and German) counterparts at the airport and through their own frontier guards who have the right to patrol both sides.
All this is to respond to the requirements of Slovenian experts, who have been evaluating Switzerland’s preparedness to join for the Schengen countries by March 1, 2009. The paramilitary Swiss frontier guards, who are not particularly interested in petty customs matters, have been finetuning for some time now their anti-crime vigilance in the border zones, often hiding out with binoculars and cameras in wooded border zones or behind barns and other rural buildings to observe crossborder movements. Their activities are also based on well-honed intelligence regarding trafficking and other criminal activities primarily by foreign criminal cartels and mafioisi networks. This is in deliberate response to Swiss public concerns that more open borders will only encourage crime.
Swiss embassies and consulates abroad will now issue Schengen visas to foreign Swiss resident holders of the “carte de legitimation”. Previously, foreign residents could only be granted the right to remain in Switzerland but not enter the Schengen area. Foreigners in Lichtenstein will have to contact the Swiss authorities for their Schengen visas. For those living in the French overseas territories, such as French Guiana or Martinique, which are not part of Schengen, will still have to apply for French visas.
According to the Federal authorities in Berne, some 630,000 people and 330,000 vehicles cross Swiss borders every day. An estimated 100,000 are refouled every year. Some 4,000 are arrested for drug trafficking, while another 2,000 have false documents.In the Geneva region alone, there are roughly 70 known crossing points along roads and country tracks. Until the new Schengen agreement, many of these were monitored on an ad hoc basis.
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written by Mark Butcher, January 05, 2009
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