Hi,
As a British citizen who travels a lot both in EU and worldwide, i'm really curious to know one thing...whether i'm entering UK or entering/leaving any other EU country, at times the border staff scans my passport and i'm let through within 10 seconds. Yet at other times i'm left waiting for a few minutes whilst they stare at their monitor. I presume in the latter case they check to see if i'm wanted by any law enforcement authorities...but then why isn't this procedure carried out ALWAYS? What surprises me even more is that at times when entering Germany, i hold up my passport photo page to the border guard and he/she waves me through...passport isn't scanned at all. I've nothing to hide but just curious why this inconsistency exists. At LHR or FRA i do try to go through the IRIS or automated e-gates.
Cheers

Did you just try to find logic in border crossing? What's next, trying to find logic in the security screening?

It's up to the individual country. My experience is that the UK scans your passport and waits 30-40 seconds for nothing to come up on their screen. The other countries just wave you through.