Spain introduce Advance Passenger Information (API)

[Fairtrade]

From the 13th of June, Spain will introduce an Advance Passenger Information system where all passengers will have to give their full name, nationality, date of birth and passport number before travelling.


"The system is similar to that introduced for travellers to the U.S. in 2004, which resulted in long delays on both sides of the Atlantic."

Read more about it here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1770

[Dawie]

I think it's fair to say that Spain is doing this to piss off the UK and Ireland and punish them for not being part of the Schengen agreement.

This issue is possibly also related to the current dispute between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar.

[pahadia]

I am wondering why UK and Ireland did not join Schengen agreement ? Is there any political reason behind it ?

[Dawie]

I am wondering why UK and Ireland did not join Schengen agreement ? Is there any political reason behind it ?

The UK is not prepared to have an open border between itself and the rest of the EU. That's the main reason.

The Republic of Ireland was apparently keen to join the Schengen agreement but because it has an open border agreement between itself and the UK (called the common travel area) it could not join the Schengen agreement without pulling out of the common travel area with the UK.

You could say the reason is political. I guess it's a lack of trust between politicians in the UK and the EU. Maybe politicians in the UK don't trust other EU states' visa issuing procedures.

[JAJ]

I think it's fair to say that Spain is doing this to piss off the UK and Ireland and punish them for not being part of the Schengen agreement.

Why on earth has it anything to do with "punishing" Britain? The requirement applies to flights into Spain from the rest of the world.

Britain is likely to have a similar system in the near future.

[Christophe]

I am wondering why UK and Ireland did not join Schengen agreement ? Is there any political reason behind it ?

Denmark similarly did not join the Schengen area at first, because (it said) it valued its open borders with the other Nordic countries more than it wanted open borders with the EU. Denmark of course has no such objections now, because Sweden and Finland are in the EU, and Norway and Iceland are part of the Schengen area.

The UK did not join because it wished to retain control over its own borders. Given the apparent mismanagement of the UK borders during the past several years, one could question the assumptions that led to this decision, but that is a different matter, I suppose. As noted above, on the basis of the UK's decision, Ireland decided that it could not sensibly join Schengen and therefore, in effect, impose border controls between the UK and Ireland.