The Times They Are Really A-Changin' - Part Deux

Remember how how you used to fall asleep on the train leaving Paris, wake up in Amsterdam and walk off onto the Dutch streets without ever showing your passport in France, Belgium or Holland? Those halcyon days are over, at least for now.

BRUSSELS (AFX) – France has activated a clause in the Schengen open borders agreement enabling it to reintroduce border controls within the European Union, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said.

‘If we don’t reinforce border controls when around 50 people die in London, I don’t know when I would do it,’ Sarkozy said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU interior ministers.

France has used the clause in the past, mainly for major sporting and political events, but Sarkozy said it was activated this time in response to the London bombings last Thursday in which at least 52 people were killed.