Mike,
>which tricountry points of europe are already visitable
>or will become visitable in 2004
>by an american tourist
>without undergoing any border inspection or examination
>beyond the initial scrutiny on arrival in europe
I'll leave it to the cataloguers to give you the definitive list of
tripoints, but the Schengen countries will for now remain Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway (excluding Svalbard), Portugal, Spain, Sweden.
Switzerland is currently negotiating to join, but I'm not sure a date has
yet been set.
>is there a projected date yet for it to become the case
No. The Accession States must implement the Schengen principles, but
internal border controls will not be dismantled until all the existing
Schengen countries agree the requirements have been met. I guess it could
be as late as 2011 before all the new countries join the Schengen area.
>do you mean they dont even look you over or profile you at all but just
>assume you arent smuggling or otherwise undesirable & they simply let you
>show your papers & watch you go all essentially automatically
There is no need for customs controls, simply because the EU and EEA forms
a single customs area (excluding certain overseas territories). When
entering one Schengen country from another, you usually transit through
domestic channels which have no controls at all. When travelling between
Schengen and non-Schengen areas within the EU, you transit through normal
immigration controls (although you can use the same channels as local
citizens), and then through a special 'blue' channel that bypasses customs.
When flying, your baggage has a green edged tag that identifies that you
can use that channel.
>i am asking why not
Well, it's probably a matter of opinion. However (and contrary to popular
belief), the EU member countries retain full sovereignty over their
affairs, and are not bound by the decisions of other members. All major
decisions, particularly those derogating powers, require the agreement of
every member state.
There is also the problem that 'country' and 'state' don't have the clear
meanings they have in North America or Australia. In Europe, they are often
interchangeable terms, and even if the EU eventually becomes a federal
state like the US, I expect people will still refer to the constituent
parts as 'countries' as we do in the UK with England, Scotland and Wales.
To answer your question though, I believe the EU is currently a special
geopolitical case. It is a political union of sovereign states, and as such
the internal tripoints should still be considered to be international.
>right & a few more similarly minuscule unglaring unmarvelous exceptions to
>the general rule
Hmmm, I also forget to mention the lack of internal border controls between
NL, BE and LU, even before the advent of Schengen.
>but the present eu arrangement already represents a huge lurch from the
>general rule of historical normalcy almost everywhere
I guess so, even if border controls are a relatively recent invention.
>therefore an entirely new sort of puzzlement for trypointing
They may warrant a new category, but I do not (yet) think it would be
correct to relegate them to inter-state in the US sense of the word.
Regards,
Kevin Meynell