Quote Originally Posted by Beery
I'm a British citizen born in England of two English parents. My passport says 'European Community' at the top. Below that it says 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. I'm not sure in what way it differs from any other European passport. I've seen others, but I haven't noticed any difference - they all say EC or EU at the top and the nationality below. Mine was issued in 1996 by the British Embassy in Washington DC. Nowhere does it specifically state that it's a British rather than a European passport, so we may be discussing semantics, but when I've gone through customs there's often a lane for European passports where there used to be one for British passports, so customs clearly regards it as European.
Well, the EU reference is there to indicate the membership. Citizens of the member countries are still nationals of independent, sovereign countries (though there are many agreements that regulate affairs).

Quite right, upon entering Britain the lane for British Citizens has been changed to "EU and EEA" (European Economic Area, permitting Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein to participate in the Internal Market, while not assuming the full responsibilities of EU membership) This has to do with the Schengen Agreement of free passage within the EU/EEA. The people in that lane are all nationals/citizens of their country, holding national passports.

Ooopps, my appologies - we are derailing now

Boy, am I looking forward to getting my kilt so that I can write about that :mrgreen: