For travellers mainly... No border control between the countries in the agreement. For visitors that require visa's they can obtain a Schengen visa from one country and have it cover travel to others.

The German immigration service has a good overview in English at:

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/e...chengen_html#1

Parties to the agreement:

- Germany
- France
- Belgium
- Luxembourg
- Spain
- Portugal
- Greece
- Austria
- Denmark
- Finland
- Sweden

Norway and Iceland are "in" via adoption of the nordic passport agreement.

Denmark, Ireland and the UK have rights to be part, but only do so in part. (UK so far doesn't apply to the agreement due to fears of asylum seekers flooding into the UK)

PS: Most intra Europe flights from one Schengen country to another put you into an arrival area of the airport where you do NOT go through immigration. Departure areas as such are also seperated to not allow schengen connections and NON-Schengen to mingle. It is typical for intra country domestic flights and schengen to mix at SOME airports as passport controls aren't needed.

In essence, mainly flights to/from the UK or to/from Switzerland to Schengen countries will get you the exposure to passport checks. Ireland seems to be one way or the other... as I've seen sometimes NO border control on flights from France or Germany.. then the next visit they are back. I'm not fully clear on the Irish governments virw on this.

Countries can STILL ask you for a passport for a random check or other reason.

[This message has been edited by NickP 1K (edited 09-17-2003).]