Guess this has been discussed before.. but here's the view from Germany and an actual deadline, which I hadn't realised was just about to come into play.

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20081211-16077.html

The customs frontier remains. The Germans have trained special police dogs to sniff out Euro currency being smuggled in cars from Germany into Switzerland.

Future control of persons will be not at the frontier but further inland using unmanned "drone" planes and mobile "flying" squads.

It is all a bit Monty Python. The Germans have dogs to sniff out currency, the British have dogs trained to sniff out illegaly imported meat, everyone has "drug" dogs.
Maybe they will train dogs to sniff out fake Rolexes
I just have this vision of having to pass through serried ranks of dogs at each & every frontier.

Marton

I thought that was the Swiss ... a couple of Xmases ago we were <<sniffed out>> with 400 g of beef more (horror ) than the allowance at the border between France and CH. When they had finished making the sum of everything it was the most expensive meet we've ever had

Going food shopping in France tomorrow ... there is no limit for how much frog legs and snails we can import

There's fewer guards around, and we've not been asked to pull over while they check our passports. Otherwise, it seems pretty much the same.

Entering France, there never were any French guards, it seems, so no change there either.

And what about the Italian border? Many swiss try to enter illegally to Italy to improve their lifestyle and find a job

the unmaned inland controls has long since been working .... you may notice on the motorways a bridge full of cameras .. theres one just before zürich....
they read the reg Nrs .. like one every second and compare this info to the same they get from the camera you have to drive under at the border.. the point is that with the schengen agreement all the data from all the countries is collected together , so the brits can report a stolen car and it can get oicked up on the system almost anywhere in the EU..

it's all a bit big brother .. but it works

i had my wallet stolen at a fillingstation.. they got the guy on cctv and then the car nr from the CCTV and within 3 days they had him ( and the rest of his robber crew)

old saying is .. if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.

According to this article (German), cameras linked to the Schengen license plate system are running in a test phase in the Rhine Valley (Austrian border) and temporary at the Liechtenstein border.

Seems they are more successful than the British, I quote from a senior police officer
"Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, ... It's been an utter fiasco: only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV."

Full article;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/may/06/ukcrime1

Marton

Came into Basel by train today and there was no Swiss or German immigration check on the train but a couple of German Zoll folks came along. Completely ignored me (typical white Northern European) but the black guy opposite got the third degree including having his luggage turned out.

Oh well, some things never change.