I think this depends on quite what you mean by freedom of movement.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/147/free-movement-of-persons has a summary where you can see that the freedoms had been gradually extended and lots of it only dates from Maastricht.
The freedom in the Treaty of Rome relates to 'workers'. So if Brian from Sunderland has a job offer in Berlin he's good to go, otherwise it's whatever restrictions that country has on living there.
Yes, although in practice, it allowed for citizens (but not family members of citizens!) to move freely. There were no real records kept of who was crossing the border, and as there was already freedom of movement for workers, in practice, it worked exactly in the same way as it does today.
The "biometrics", i.e. the cameras at the entrance to security, are only found at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, and are only used for CTA flights.
In for example the Schengen area, international airports have "inside Schengen" and "outside Schengen" zones, and one goes through passport control to pass between these zones. However the UK does not have this distinction because there are no physical exit migration inspections. The airside departure zones of most UK airports are defined as "inside the UK" because the only way to access them when arriving from outside the CTA, is to pass through immigration.
Yes, I've recently been in transit from Poland to Malaga through Zurich, and the airside hotel was located in the non-Schengen area. It was an interesting experience being 'locked out' of Schengen at 11pm, as Swiss passport control was shut between 11pm-4:30am. The non-Schengen side is really barren in comparison, and after exploring the whole non-Schengen side of the airport, you could see that it wasn't intended for anyone to spend any length of time there.
I don't think it's still the case, but Aberdeen Airport for instance used to have UK baggage reclaim located in the public part of the airport. UK arrivals would simply disembark into the departure lounge before heading to the public side of the airport, where they would reclaim their baggage. I don't think I've ever seen anything similar in an airport within Schengen, due to the fact that customs controls still exist to some degree. Actually, one interesting change with Schengen is that many airports simply don't have a domestic arrivals area anymore.
What is also interesting is how arriving passengers are handled these days. Some airports deposit everyone into the departures lounge with a separate exit area (for instance, Berlin or Malaga), but then others like Valencia continue to maintain a separate arrivals area. It's obviously related to the age of the terminal, but it's surprising that airports like Valencia still continue to use such a system.
However, at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, international airside transit is possible. Passengers may arrive on a non-CTA flight and transit to a non-CTA flight without having any UK physical immigration checks. (Airlines may perform checks for the purposes of ensuring the passenger is the real ticket holder, and to ensure the passenger may enter the destination.) These passengers are "outside the UK" during their transit. But they freely mingle with passengers who are "inside the UK" - including those about to take domestic flights.
Were there no "biometrics", a domestic passenger "inside the UK" could swap boarding passes with a passenger "outside the UK". As no ID is required for domestic flights, the wrong passenger could board the domestic flight and enter the UK without passing through immigration. The actual domestic passenger could then leave the airport (by passing through immigration).
It is a complex system and really only required because these airports want domestic passengers to be able to shop at the full range of airport outlets.
Thank you for that, I wasn't aware that this was the case in those airports! It is a very complicated system compared to the system used in Schengen, where the vast majority of facilities are found in the Schengen area and the non-Schengen areas tend to be very limited in comparison. In smaller airports, exit passport control can even be at the gate.
Regarding the CTA. I have never found a clear answer as to whether it applies to all British and Irish citizens, or only those who were citizens from birth, or only those who were born in the UK or Ireland or the other CTA islands. In my view, Ireland does not follow the spirit of the CTA by forcing arrivals from the UK into Dublin Airport to pass through immigration.
The CTA applies to all citizens equally. The problematic part is that you have to be able to prove it on demand, which leads to racial profiling and so on. In practice, what I've observed is that the onus is on the traveller to provide enough information for them to be classed as part of the CTA. I've tested this once when flying to Dublin, when I read that it was enough to present a bus pass. So I did, and the immigration officer in Dublin asked me where I'd flown from and what my plans were. He said "That's fine" after I told him, which was really quite ridiculous.
About the Irish ID checks at ports: this is a hugely complicated situation. The problem is that the CTA was never formalised in law, and it was more of 'custom and practice' than anything else. The rules of the CTA were developed through national law rather than international treaties, which meant that the principle of 'freedom of movement for British and Irish citizens only' was the result of various national laws more than anything else.
The CTA should really be formalised in a treaty between the UK, Irish and the island governments, but there is a remarkable reluctance on both sides to formalise it. The current situation is full of exceptions, absurdities and is nowhere near on the level of the various agreements that comprise Schengen.
One major issue with the CTA is that it's really not clear in many respects. For instance, you need a passport to travel from Ireland to the UK as an EU/EEA/CH citizen. Yet in practice, your identity card is enough, and usually airports have a bypass lane for travellers from the CTA, or they're deposited straight into the UK departure lounge. I've tried this in practice, and no-one batted an eyelid.
Really, both the UK and Ireland should grow up and start implementing a common travel space without all these strange rules, exceptions and so on.
Regarding "visa waivers". Currently no such thing is required for British citizens visiting the EU or for EU citizens visiting the UK. ETIAS is therefore an impediment to travel. It has been reported that people eligible for ETIAS will be able to use e-gates in Schengen, which may reduce immigration queues. Nonetheless, despite being called a "visa waiver", they are visas in practice because they involve hassle and require travellers to request approval before travelling. Of course, they are easier than a traditional full visa application.
No, not quite. UK citizens visiting EU countries (except Ireland!) now are given a visa waiver, which is the 90 day Schengen stamp. ETIAS effectively continues this, but with the provision that you need to pay for the pleasure of being checked against national databases. It's probably more accurate to call it a tax rather than a visa.
However, one note is that ETIAS won't be enforced at the land border. It supposedly will be extended, but there's a very real point that extending it to the land border will increase bureaucratic barriers for people living in border communities.
There was some talk above about the UK introducing such a system for EU citizens. I have not heard of any plans to introduce this generally, so if someone has a source I would appreciate it.
The UK doesn't seem to know what to do with EU/EEA/CH citizens. They aren't stamping passports, yet they're enforcing the same rules as applied to EU citizens. As it stands, there are no plans, and I suspect this is partially because of the Irish loophole when it comes to travelling.
The UK already has a visa-waiver system for citizens of some Middle Eastern countries. Previously, those citizens needed to apply for visas by going to a UK embassy and submitting a lot of personal information months before travel, so this visa waiver is a reduction of travel impediments. Introducing this system for people who currently do not need to do anything when travelling to the UK would be an increase in impediments to travel.
The system itself could be automated quite easily. It would be enough to require passenger information to be transmitted before travel, and the traveller could then receive an e-mail confirming that they are free to travel to the UK. The airlines and ferry companies could do this very easily, and it could be included in the cost of the ticket. As it stands, ETIAS and other systems are very unfriendly in terms of how they work.
I would read it as being fairly clear in that applies to all citizens of the two countries, and I'm not quite sure as to how you'd come up with a different interpretation?
With regards to arrival in Ireland, there is a technical differentiation in that CTA citizens are simply required to prove their nationality rather than submit to full immigration clearance procedures. It does seem a little bit pointless given that it's so easily evaded by travelling via NI, but legally it's no different to how EU citizens entitled to freedom of movement to and from the UK still had to prove that fact to immigration officers at the UK border.
I think the poster is referring to the fact that there are different classes of British citizen.
I do wonder why the Irish introduced these ID checks at ports to begin with. This may shed some light on it:
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1997-12-02/24/
The interesting thing is that it's stated here that the purpose of the checks was to establish whether a person was to be given leave to enter Ireland. That means that in Irish legal theory, you need to be granted leave to enter Ireland, although it's completely unclear as to why they need to be checked on the air/sea borders and not the land border. One possible theory is that it's to do with how airports are designed, as having a separate CTA-arrivals area would probably not be feasible.
But yes, I suspect the UK and the island governments aren't bothered by the Irish port checks, because the UK can also reserve the right to check people on arrival that way. I've certainly been checked several times when flying into Stansted, Aberdeen and Manchester!
