On the other side of the globe, car searches by customs without a warrant or a probable cause were a standard thing up until ~2000. Now not only don't you see any border control when travelling in Europe, you're not bothered at all by the authorities at the airports (unless you're from outside EU). It seems ironic, when you think about people running away from here, over the ocean, to get to freedom just a couple of decades before...
I had my bags searched on a train Europe, in the middle of the ride, not at a crossing. Just taken out and rifled through. Say what you will about the States, but that's unconstitutional here --- except at the border.
Obviously it depends where in Europe you are, but in the UK at least, the police need reasonable suspicion before they can search you (or certain other specific circumstances must obtain), and there are limits on what they are allowed to search for. They are not legally allowed to search you just because they feel like it.
There's a summary of police powers of search and seizure in the UK here:
You don't get harassed at borders but you have lost national sovereignty. So it's one freedom for another - and in the case of the EU many would argue that it is a net loss of freedom.
No, we have voluntarily pooled our national sovereignty by treaty in some areas, and enjoy an increase in individual freedoms as a direct result. This is quite different from what you describe.
You voluntarily gave up your national sovereignty, which is a voluntary loss of freedom.
There are other good things in life besides freedom. I'm not saying the EU is a bad idea. I'm saying that when the UK joined the EU it gave up a good number of freedoms it previously had - admittedly those particular freedoms were not considered valuable. Such as the freedom to control trade.
It doesn't really feel like it. For typical people nothing changed. The laws were changed a bit so that they're more unified and the market forces work a bit differently. But sovereignty itself? No. Every country still has authority over its own territory. It's not independent authority, but was it ever? (in practice, that is) The countries are still divided much more clearly than the states - in every way I can think of.
