Belgium. Shengan or not?

[Peegee]

In the far distant summer we spent a couple of days in Nieuport on our way back from Holland. Had a visit from the "Maritime Police" Who went through the usual document check. To cut a long story short, I got a severe talking to because I had not obtained Shengan Forms on arrival in Belgium 4 weeks earlier ( Ostend then ). Anyway I have spent the last few weeks trying to get the difinitive answer on the Shengan situation. The RYA (after weeks of waiting for a reply) finally said yes,see their booklet....etc. However , being in the Dover area ,I asked a Hoverspeed rep what they advised their customers, Day trippers , Short break holiday makers, etc.
His reply was.. "Shakin What"!
So , I thought, if a major carrier is not advising / aware of the requirment , why are us poor Yotties getting it in the ear.. E mailed the Belgian embassy TWICE..
to date no reply to my request for confirmation of their requirment. Then tried Belgian tourist board... Two weeks gone still no reply.
Has anybody else been collared about this ? Also, where does one get the three part form from, none of the Marinas had offered them to us, so do we get them here and take them with us , or what ? . Oh well! so much for being a European citizen with open borders etc . What on Earth do we carry passports for???

 

[byron]

New one on me mate and I regularly visit Belgium with my boat. But! Hey! the Belgians are the same dudes that extended their limit so far it reaches into Ramsgate Harbour.


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[kimhollamby]

Two years back KYCN Nieuwpoort gave us passport forms to fill in; no sign of them this year.

 

[steffen]

In the dutch exit harbours like IJmuiden one can (has to) obtain and fill out a form in triplicate; one you keep, one goes into a box for immigration and i cant remember what to do with the third.
Apart from keeping civil servants awake, it had something to do with preventing illegal entry into the Sjengen countries because you enter on the form who leaves the exit harbour.

 

[Guest]

The Schengen Agreement is all about open borders and the UK has not signed up to this. As a result one gets the impression that the Schengen Police (in their wonderful blue-braided uniforms) are perhaps "out to get us." We keep one of our boats near Nieuwpoort and have been "collared" on numerous occasions in Nieuwpoort, Veurne and Brugge, on one trip twice in the same day. On all occasions the approach was very polite, cordial and informal and the police produced and filled out the necessary forms. On one occasion we had just sailed back from England and I had completely forgotten to take the ship's papers with me. I had realised half way across and my wife was bringing the papers out in the car when she came to meet us. Of course the Schengen police stopped us at Nieuwpoort, but they were quite happy when I told them we had no papers, let us proceed on our way and met us a few hours later on our mooring to inspect the papers, by which time my wife had arrived.

Bureaucracy, but with a smile!

 

[byron]

Curious! Bargee can you tell me does this apply just on the inland waterways or in seaports too. I really am bewildered, maybe I got an honest face but in all my days of popping in and out of Belgian ports I have never encountered this. Having said that I will probably get pestered next year ;-)

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[kingfisher]

Schengen fairytale

There was once a king, who had a bit of an argument with a witch. To get even, the witch posioned the well of the village, and everyone became mad. The king, who drank only the finest wines, was the only sane person. But because everyone was mad, they declared the king insane. So at night, the king drank from the well, and all was fine in the kingdom.

The Schengen agreement is part of the EU in two speeds. It is a policy where members states can choose to opt in or out. So far, the following countries have ratified the Schengen agreement:
Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Denmark,Iceland and Norway.

So don't blame the Belgian government that you have to fill in a load of paperwork. It's not their fault the UK didn't join the club.

I, as a Belgian, on the other hand can leave my paperwork at home, and sail from Norway to Greece without a single piece of red tape. And next month with the same currency.

But hey, if you want to sail your own course, that's your right. But don't complain if the other route is much easier.


Obi-Wan

 

[Peegee]

Re: Schengen fairytale

WELL!. Heres a funny thing. I have today had a reply from the Belgian consulate !.
( No! surely they don't follow the forum. Paranoia setting in....) Anyway to quote....
"As you may well be aware,british nationals with a valid national passport do not need a schengen visa and so are all E.U. nationals. " visa dept.
So, how does that now fit in with other peoples, i.e Bargee experiences.... Strikes me as definitely a fairytale, but with a different ending depending on wether you are a consular official or naval police. I am taking a copy of the reply with me next time.

 

[Guest]

The embassy was right, of course

Schengen is all about mutual recognition of visas and is therefore irrelevant to E.U nationals.

The harbour police were therefore trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

It sounds like that what you were being asked to complete was a form they want you to fill in to keep track of who is using their harbour. But they have no right to stop you entering the country.

The reason why they are so interested in checking who is on board British yachts is that there are many "illegal" immigrants trying to make it from the continent to Britain, because Britain does not have an indentity card system. The sensitivity to checking boats travelling to and from the UK is therefore driven primarily by the British authorities - the Belgians are just helping the British out.

 

[Guest]

We have been "collared" both whilst entering Belgium from the sea and whilst cruising inland, e.g. in Bruges whilst moored by the windmills/ring road. We were also checked in Gent when I recently delivered a ship down from Rotterdam to Nieuwpoort. This is all a fairly recent thing, perhaps in the last three years, but as I have said, in our experience it is not a problem, merely a bureaucratic exercise.

 

[byron]

Admit it, you have a criminal's face whilst I have an honest one which is why they stop you and not me ;-)
Didn't we meet in Dunkirk during the Little Ships Rally?

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[charles_reed]

Schevenigen

I think you'll find only the Belgians are showing any great enthusiasm for such "homologised" documentation.
You should have asked them for the forms and seen their red faces when they couldn't supply them.

I suspect you'll be best off getting them from the Commission office in Brussels.

I've used a copy, in Spanish, for the authorities in Spain - they're usually very relieved to have all their form-filling info in Spanish in front of them.
I think there's a copy at the end of none of the RCC guides, S Biscay oe N Spain.

 

[Guest]

Possibly: we were there 1990 and 2000 : 100' Dutch barge "Actief of Amsterdam." Where were you?

 

[byron]

I was with my previous boat a Broom Ocean 37 also called Ocean Eagle. I was moored in the same place the 'Little Ships' moored, right under my favorite bar. I was on your boat for some reason, can't remember why but remember you giving me some useful info. on the inland waterways. I never go 'inland' but it was still "all good stuff" to be filed away for future reference. You were waiting for John Salter and that crowd to arrive. I'm an old mate of Johnny Pleece, Mike Turk and that lot.

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[quaelgeist2]

Late response, but just picked it up.

Schengen Agreement : No intra-EU (participants) border control, all controls at the outer boreders to non-Schengen countries. (Recently questioned in the wake of 11 Sept....)

Coastal Entry : In several European countries, entries through a sea port are by definiton non-Schengen entries, to prevent exploitation of Schengen by illegal immigrants. E.g. Germany.

Practice : For boats with flags 'from the area', e.g. Danish in the Baltic SEa or Dutch at the Dutch /Belgian coast are tolerated not to declare exit/entry (mostly, no guarantee)

My question therefore, what have you specifically been asked to fill-in ? Possibly an entry/exit declaration ? There are no visa requirements for British citizens , while at the same time UK has not signed Schengen, it doesn't apply here...


regards
chris