Travel documents for EU nationals
Travel documents for Schengen countries
If you are an EU national you don't need to show your national ID card or passport, when you're travelling from one border-free Schengen EU country to another. Even if you don't need a passport for border checks within the Schengen area. It's always highly recommended to take a passport or your ID card with you, so you are able to prove your identity if it's necessary. Driving licences, post, bank or tax cards aren't accepted as valid travel documents or proof of identity. Under Schengen rules, in extenuating circumstances, where a threat to public policy or national security has been identified Member States are permitted to reintroduce temporary border controls.
It's important to take other documents with you. Of course you need your travel, health and maybe car insurance documents.
Travel documents for non-Schengen countries
If you want to travel to another country which isn't a member of the Schengen area you always need your passport and a visa.
Travelling with pets as an EU national
As an EU national, you're allowed to travel with dogs, cats and ferrets, if they have the European pet passport. Dogs aren't allowed to weigh more then 8kgs. For travelling with your pet to Finland, Ireland, Malta or the United Kingdom you're pet must be treated against the tapeworm Echinococcus. If you want to travel with other animals you have to follow the different country rules.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:German_passport_(european_community).jpg
What can you take with you on a flight from one EU country to another?
Usually you're not allowed to take animal products with you, although if you arrive from Greenland, Iceland or the Faeroe Islands you can take a little piece of meat with you for personal consumption. It is allowed to take baby food or medicine on a flight. If you want to take cigarettes or liquids with you, you can do this as well, but also only for personal consumption. Normally you're allowed to take 800 cigarettes with you, but some countries don't allow that much. A country is forced to allow 300 cigarettes, sometimes you can take more with you. You're allowed to take 400 cigarillos, 200 cigars, 1 kg of tobacco, 10 litres of spirits, 20 litres of fortified wine, 90 litres of wine (including a maximum of 60 litres of sparkling wines) and 110 litres of beer, too. The maximum of money, which you're allowed to take with you, is 10.000€.
What happens with your personal dates?
The airline files you personal dates like your name, your bank account number, your choosen dinner, your health status and wherefrom to where you will fly.
Passenger Rights
Rail Passenger Rights
If your train is cancelled or delayed, you are always entitled to adequate information about what is happening while you are waiting.
If you are told you will arrive at your final destination with a delay of at least 1 hour, you are entitled to cancel your travel plans and request an immediate refund of the cost of your ticket (sometimes in full, sometimes only for the part of the journey not made.)
You are entitled to a return journey to your departure point, if the delay stops you from reaching your final destination or to be transported to your final destination at the earliest opportunity. This includes alternative transport when the train is blocked and the service is suspended. To ease the wait you can also get meals and refreshments and accommodation (if you have to stay overnight)
If you decide to continue your journey as planned or to accept alternative transport to your destination, you may be entitled to compensation of:
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25% of the ticket fare, if the train is between 1 and 2 hours late.
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50% of the fare, if the train is more than 2 hours late.
You will not receive compensation if you were informed of a delay before you bought your ticket If you think your rights have not been respected, you can complain to the railway company, which must reply within 1 month.
If you are not satisfied with their reply, you can contact the national enforcement body
If your registered luggage is lost or damaged during your trip, you have a right to compensation, unless it was inadequately packed, unfit for transport or had a special nature.
Compensation amounts
If a passenger is killed or injured in a train accident, they (or their dependants) are entitled to compensation for lost or damaged hand luggage (registered or not) up to a maximum of EUR 1 500.
In the event of death, this advance payment is at least EUR 21 000 per person.
Bus or coach passenger rights
If the long-distance service (more than 250km) you booked is cancelled or departure is delayed for more than 2 hours, you will be offered to choose either getting a refund for your ticket and when necessary a free journey back to the departure point or being transported to your final destination at no extra cost
If you are not offered this choice at the time, you can later complain and claim a refund for the ticket plus compensation worth 50% of the ticket price.
If your long-distance journey (more than 250km) was scheduled to last more than 3 hours and departure is delayed by more than 90 minutes or cancelled, you are also entitled to meals and refreshments - proportionate to the waiting time or delay and accommodation if you have to stay overnight (for up to 2 nights, at a maximum rate of 80 Euros per night.)
Carriers are not obliged to cover accommodation if the delay was caused by severe weather conditions or natural disasters.
If you are injured in a bus accident during a long-distance journey (more than 250 km), you are entitled to compensation. In case of death, compensation can be claimed by your dependents.
You also have a right to compensation from the bus company if your luggage or other belongings are lost or damaged in a bus accident on a long-distance journey.
Where necessary, the carrier will also provide immediate assistance: first aid, food, clothes, transport and accommodation.
Ship passenger rights
You have rights in case things go wrong. This concerns delays and cancellations that prevent you from boarding and applies if you are leaving a port in the EU with any carrier or arriving in a port in the EU with any carrier
These rules do not apply to ships that can carry less than 13 passengers, ships that have less than 3 crew members, most of historical ships and excursion and sightseeing ships if they do not have accommodation facilities or the overnight stay does not exceed 2 nights on board.
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ships that can carry fewer than 13 passengers
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ships that have no more than 3 members of crew
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most sorts of historical ships
If the service is cancelled or departure is delayed for more than 90 minutes, you will be offered to choose between getting a refund of your ticket and a free return journey back to your departure point and being transported to your final destination
If your trip's departure is delayed by more than 90 minutes, in most cases you are also entitled to meals and refreshments and accommodation if you have to stay overnight.
If your trip's arrival at destination is delayed by more than 1 hour, you are entitled to compensation. Depending of the length of the delay, the compensation is either 25% or 50% of the ticket price.
You will not receive compensation if the delay was caused by severe weather conditions or natural disasters.
Accidents at sea:
If you are injured in an accident at sea, you are entitled to compensation from the carrier or its insurer. In the event of death, compensation can be claimed by your successors.
You also have a right to compensation by the carrier if your luggage, vehicles or other belongings are lost or damaged in an accident at sea.
If you have reduced mobility, compensation for loss of or damage to wheelchairs or other such equipment will cover the full cost of replacement or repair.
You have a right to receive an advance payment from the carrier to cover immediate needs in case of injury or death caused by:
Shipwreck, collision, stranding, defect in the ship, etc.
Travelling with reduced mobility
You can never be stopped from travelling because of reduced mobility, unless the means of transport is not safe enough for you.
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/index_en.htm
http://www.lufthansa.com/online/portal/lh/de/homepage
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/eu-citizen/index_en.htm
Travelling in Europe before and after joining the European Union (Hungary)
We joined the European Union in 2004. In the past decades there were controls at the frontier. We couldn’t travel freely abroad. This regulation changed in 2007, because today at the frontiers of Slovakia, Slovenia and Austria there is no boarder control, and within the Schengen we can travel everywhere. We don’t need a passport, an identity card is enough. In addition, we can visit other countries like the USA and Canada.
We have the chance to study abroad. There are a lot of programmes like Erasmus. More than 5 million Hungarian students have learned abroad since 1987, because EU contributed them with money. 40.000 students travelled in a foreign country to study, and 4000 foreign students came to Hungary and they study at a Hungarian University.
We can work abroad, too. Many people live in German, Great-Britain, France and Austria because they can earn much more money than in Hungary. The flight is cheaper, too.
There is no roaming. We can make a phone call with Hungarian charges.
Our environment is healthier, the regulations are strict, because of the chemicals. Hungary got money to improve the watercourse.
What is the Schengen treaty?
An agreement between European countries to get rid of all controls at their borders, and so allow people and goods complete freedom to move between their countries. The agreement involves all members of the European Union except the UK, Ireland, Bulgaria, and Romania, and also Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
The Schengen area represents a territory where the free movement of persons is guaranteed. The signatory states to the agreement have abolished all internal borders into a single external border. Here common rules and procedures are applied with regard to visas for short stays, asylum requests and border controls. However, all countries cooperating in Schengen are not parties to the Schengen area. This is either because they do not wish to eliminate border controls or because they do not yet fulfil the required conditions for the application of the Schengen acquis.
http://www.schengenvisainfo.com
Traveling from and to the Netherlands
In 1951 the Netherlands joined the EU or then called the European Coal and Steal community. it wasn’t possible to travel from country to country freely.
But if you want to travel to the Netherlands nowadays you only need an ID kart or a passport.
In the Netherlands it’s possible to get a visa for max. 90 days. This visa is meant for people outside the EU. This is called a Schengen visa.
If you’re coming from a European country you don’t need a visa to stay here 90 days.
Because we signed the Schengen treaty traveling from the Netherlands is actually quite simple. Nowadays you just search on the internet and buy tickets online. It’s possible to travel in Europe without a passport. You only need an ID-kart. If you want to travel outside the EU you need to have a passport.
Travelling in Italy
CURRENCY Italy is an important part of the UE so the euro became the official currency of the country in 2002. The notes are issued in denominations: 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 cuts with coins 1 and 2 euro. The euro is divided into 100 cents and the coins are in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent.
CHANGE OF THE CURRENCY/ATM Credit cards are accepted by hotels, restaurants and supermarkets, for example MasterCard and Visa are the most popular brands. ATMs are located in most cities, but sometimes travelers encounter problems to accept foreign debit cards to these macchine. money can be exchanged at the cabins exchange (known as exchange rate), post offices and banch.
CUSTOMS The following items can be brought in Italy: 60 ml of perfume; 2 liters of wine, 1 liter of spirits; 200 cigarettes; There is no limitation on the number of euro that you can bring to Italy.
CHECK The citizens of one of the countries that form the European Union can enter without a check. There is an additional agreement known as the Schengen Convention, which allows travel between the citizens of the 15 member countries. A check to a Schengen country allows you to travel to another Member State for the duration of the check, although other rates may be applied to some borders.
Which documents/ licenses/ permits are required for trips whithin the Schengen-Zone?
If somebody, who lives in a European Union country, wants to travel abroad within the frontier of the EU, he needs only an identity card. It is not sure, that somebody will control us, and watch our passports. But it is advisable to take this with us.
Before we joined the EU, our position was not so easy, because we needed a passport and an identity card. The travelling was more difficult, as today. We were controlled at the frontier, in addition we should purchase the documents, what we needed.
If we are not a burgess of the EU like Norwegian, Swiss, Icelandic, we need to wait in the zone „all passport”, because we will be controlled. We have to have only an identity card.
The burgess of the State, in wich the visa is mandatory, they can cross the border only with an identity card, and a visa.
What are the rules on delays?
If you are departing from an EU airport on any airline, or arriving at an EU airport on an EU carrier (this includes Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) you are entitled to care and compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004 for a delayed arrival time of more than two hours. The airline must provide food and drink appropriate to the time of day (this is often in the form of a voucher) and a means of communicating your delay or a refund of the cost of essential calls.
For overnight delays, the airline must provide hotel accommodation and transport to reach it - or to return home. When there’s a major disruption, airline staff may not be able to assist in booking hotels. In such cases, you can make your own arrangements and claim the cost back. But don’t expect a full refund for an expensive hotel unless there’s no alternative. Supporting receipts are essential.
