Longer waits to get back home for EU citizens

EU interior ministers in Brussels agreed today to put in place the same screening procedures for their own citizens as for foreign citizens at the EU's external borders.

As someone with both US and EU nationality, I've been amazed at the very different experience I encounter when entering each one.
When I go home to New York, I always have to wait in a very long line at JFK airport, even though I am entering with my US passport. I have to fill out a customs declaration form, then bring it to a border guard (after a wait of usually around 40 minutes). He runs it through the database, and asks me a serious of questions. Where have I been? Why do I live in Belgium? What is my job? Where am I staying? The whole interview process can take between three to ten minutes.

Contrast this to my experience coming home to the Schengen area using my Italian passport. I've never once been asked any question at the border. Usually, they just glance at my passport and wave me through. Sometimes they quickly run my passport through a scanner. Given how quick the process is I doubt it's running my name through an extensive database.

Brussels doesn't like to be ignored

Brussels is baring some teeth this week, as it becomes increasingly assertive in the face of US efforts to negotiate with different EU countries separately in areas now handled by Brussels.

This week’s spat is over a new set of security requirements the US wants to impose on European countries designed to keep track of who is entering and leaving the country. The US is demanding in-flight security officers aboard transatlantic flights, an electronic travel authorization system, and an accord to share further data on air passengers and lost and stolen passports.

The European Commission today shot the proposal down saying it was "unacceptable" and went "too far". But what they seem to be most angry about is that the US didn’t consult them and instead attempted to circumvent Brussels, taking their demands to the individual EU capitals. Jonathan Fauli, the head of the Commission’s Home Affairs department, told reporters yesterday,

"We don't negotiate matters which are dealt with in Washington with the state of California - that would be disrespectful and we expect the US to be similarly respectful of our law and system here. The USA knows perfectly well that there some things you come to Brussels to talk about.”