No, they are not. Because most countries in Europe are part of the Schengen zone, there are no borders and so no controls of such. You can get stopped by the police while driving and that is when you will be asked to provide the paperwork. On our summer Europe road trip in 2022, we visited and drove through 9 countries and covered 9000 kilometers (5,500 miles) in 1 month. During this time, we were stopped by the police only 1 time.