Originally Posted by
phoneticduck
Scratching my head wondering how I've not realised this before now. How come mainland EU countries are so obsessed with immigration checks, even for EU bound flights? IIRC there aren't any checks when departing Ireland either for EU flights?
EU countries are not. By way of example, the UK is an EU Member State, at least for the moment and as you point out does not have a formal exit check.
Schengen members are not obsessed but required by the implementing regulation to stamp passports on arrival into and departure from Schengen. That is the only way of noting how long an individual has been in Schengen and whether the individual has overstayed.
Even though a requirement, countries such as Italy are less than faithful in exit stamps.