Adam Boulton: Bank holiday travellers beware – getting to and from Europe is about to get a whole lot harder
The August bank holiday has arrived – the cue for millions to get back to work after whatever holidays they have managed to enjoy.
Over this weekend many Britons will be coming home from Europe through ports, airports and the Channel Tunnel.
Their trips may have included frustrating delays and border checks but there won’t be another summer which runs as smoothly as 2024 for many years ahead.
Passengers waiting to cross the Channel at the Port of Dover in July. Pic: PA
In a couple of months’ time, the European Union will start imposing its new “Entry-Exit System” (EES) on UK citizens.
That will mean fingerprint and biometric recognition for every British visitor to the EU’s Schengen area by the end of this year.
From November 2025 we will have to obtain a de-facto visa for entry in advance, at a cost of €7 (£6) for a three-year permit.
Nobody doubts that EES is going to lead to delays and greater costs for travellers and border control authorities alike.
For example, car passengers arriving at Dover have been told processing could take 15 hours before they get on a ferry.
The UK supported the strengthening of EU borders when it was a member state.
After Brexit, the UK now faces the consequences from the other side of the fence.
Lorries queued up waiting to enter the Port of Dover this summer. Pic: PA
Starmer could seek to delay super-sensitive restrictions again
These extra practical frictions for UK travellers are coming in at the very time when the new Labour government in the UK is trying to establish friendlier relations with the EU.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has a meeting with the newly re-appointed European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in September and there are plans to re-establish regular meetings between the UK and the bloc.
But in terms of identity, the new system is merely a confirmation of this nation’s changed status.
From now on British citizens will be treated by the European Union in a similar way to the reception they receive from other allied nations such as Japan and the United States.
Europe is, however, overwhelmingly the main destination for British travellers, whether for business or leisure.
Last year official UK government statistics report 66 million visits by Britons to Europe, 60 million of them to core EU countries, compared to 4.5 million to North America, the next most frequently visited.
Spain, Greece, Italy, France and Portugal make up Britons’ top five foreign holiday destinations.
Making travel from the UK to Europe more irksome is super sensitive for both sides and implementation of the new border controls has been repeatedly postponed.
First planned in 2017, they were originally meant to come in in 2021. Even the latest start date for biometric checks of 10 November 2024, is a month later than the most recent October deadline. At least travellers in the autumn half-term should now avoid the hassle.
Sir Keir’s imminent talks could just possibly lead to further delay, although this seems unlikely.
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What to expect in the near future
According to The Times this week, Sir Keir’s agenda is topped by agreeing to three years of freedom of movement for the under-30s both ways between the UK and the EU.
The arrangement would be similar to the one the UK now shares with New Zealand and Australia. Previously Rishi Sunak’s government flatly ruled out this idea when the EU suggested it.
So expect biometric testing to start in November.
Travelling across borders this summer, at airports and ferry ports, I could see the technology already in place, lines of booths and sensors, ready and waiting.
Air travellers will be processed on arrival in Europe. Those using ferries or trains are expected to complete the formalities at UK points of exit.
The costs and delays are likely to be here.
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Eurostar is spending £8.5m on extra facilities at St Pancras, including a new overflow room.
It plans to have terminals to confirm the Electronic Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) dotted around the station as a whole because there is not enough room in its part of the terminus.
In Folkestone, where cars and lorries board the Eurotunnel, an extra £70m has been earmarked.
The Port of Dover is expanding processing facilities for coaches into its western docks and plans to have more holding space on site for cars “by 2027”.
Brexit supporters hope the new rules will help deter illegal migrants. Pic: PA
New system ‘effectively a visa’
Officially the new compulsory permission from ETIAS to enter the EU is not a visa.
But Simon Calder, the veteran British travel journalist, says it “amounts to one” and is broadly similar to the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) travel waiver to the US.
He points out that both require an online application in advance, the supply of significant personal information, the payment of money and result in permission to cross a border.
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As well as details of age, home address and passport, applicants will also be asked if they have criminal convictions or have recently visited war zones.
It is estimated that ETIAS will take three days to process applications.
There will be a grace period of six months for muddles after the introduction of ETIAS for UK citizens in May next year but from November 2025 those who do not have ETIAS approval will not be allowed to travel. Stamping of passports on entry and exit will be dropped.
Scammers are already active online offering to process ETIAS.
Frontex, the European Border and Coastguard Agency, stresses the only way to get an ETIAS will be to apply at europa.eu/elias, at a fixed rate.
The system is not yet open or required for UK citizens.
Issues of immigration and identity impacted by change
The EU’s Schengen travel area includes all 27 member states, except for Ireland and Cyprus, as well as Norway, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Iceland. The Common Travel Area between Ireland and the UK remains in place.
In the long run of years, these new measures may make travel more efficient for those with the right documentation.
They will also increase the control of the authorities over who may enter their zone.
The UK and the EU both want to clamp down on illegal migration.
But inevitably the bureaucracy of travelling is also affecting how people see their own identity.
The last, pro-Brexit, UK government wanted to reach bilateral deals with individual European countries, in part to undermine the concept of European solidarity.
The EES is a pushback by the so-called “European Superstate” that it does not intend to be divided so easily.
EU citizens, who are more used than Britons to ID cards, already have to go through technological checkpoints to enter the UK and are subject to similar restrictions on duration of stay.
Practical barriers are going up between the UK and Europe, leaving those who identify as both British and European caught in the middle.
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Travelling from France to Ireland by ferry this week, I could see this psychodrama advertised on the back of the vehicles coming on board.
Ireland has been transformed and liberated by its entry into the European Community in the wake of the UK. With its open border to the south, Northern Ireland has a foot in both camps. In trade terms this wound was rubbed in the long wrangle over the protocol and then the Windsor Framework.
More poignantly, the bumper stickers on the cars and trailers travelling home to the north via Cork were confused with the letters “NI” stamped on the European flag, just like on all the other member states of the European Union – to which the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland no longer belongs.
For some UK citizens, extra travel hassle and ETIAS charges may be prices worth paying for “taking back control”. Many others, with new anxieties over travel plans, followed by fretting in queues, may not feel that way.
For ordinary travellers, these changes in travel regulations to Europe may matter as much in practice as some of the new government’s more talked about challenges.
Sir Keir Starmer cannot afford to brush them aside.
Negotiations to reset the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU are going “to the wire”, a Cabinet Office minister has said.
“There is no final deal as yet. We are in the very final hours,” the UK’s lead negotiator Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
On the possibility of a youth mobility scheme with the EU, he insisted “nothing is agreed until everything is”.
“We would be open to a smart, controlled youth mobility scheme,” he said. “But I should set out, we will not return to freedom of movement.”
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The government is set to host EU leaders in London on Monday.
Put to the minister that the government could not guarantee there will be a deal by tomorrow afternoon, Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “Nobody can guarantee anything when you have two parties in a negotiation.”
But the minister said he remained “confident” a deal could be reached “that makes our borders more secure, is good for jobs and growth, and brings people’s household bills down”.
“That is what is in our national interest and that’s what we will continue to do over these final hours,” he said.
“We have certainly been taking what I have called a ruthlessly pragmatic approach.”
On agricultural products, food and drink, Mr Thomas-Symonds said supermarkets were crying out for a deal because the status quo “isn’t working”, with “lorries stuck for 16 hours and food rotting” and producers and farmers unable to export goods because of the amount of “red tape”.
Asked how much people could expect to save on shopping as a result of the deal the government was hoping to negotiate, the minister was unable to give a figure.
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On the issue of fishing, asked if a deal would mean allowing French boats into British waters, the minister said the Brexit deal which reduced EU fishing in UK waters by a quarter over five years comes to an end next year.
He said the objectives now included “an overall deal in the interest of our fishers, easier access to markets to sell our fish and looking after our oceans”.
Turning to borders, the minister was asked if people would be able to move through queues at airports faster.
Again, he could not give a definitive answer, but said it was “certainly something we have been pushing with the EU… we want British people who are going on holiday to be able to go and enjoy their holiday, and not be stuck in queues”.
PM opens door to EU youth mobility scheme
A deal granting the UK access to a major EU defence fund could be on the table, according to reports – and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has appeared to signal a youth mobility deal could be possible, telling The Times that while freedom of movement is a “red line”, youth mobility does not come under this.
The European Commission has proposed opening negotiations with the UK on an agreement to facilitate youth mobility between the EU and the UK. The scheme would allow both UK and EU citizens aged between 18 and 30 years old to stay for up to four years in a country of their choosing.
Earlier this month, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Phillips a youth mobility scheme was not the approach the government wanted to take to bring net migration down.
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When this was put to him, Mr Thomas-Symonds insisted any deal on a youth mobility scheme with Europe will have to be “smart” and “controlled” and will be “consistent” with the government’s immigration policy.
Asked what the government had got in return for a youth mobility scheme – now there had been a change in approach – the minister said: “It is about an overall balanced package that works for Britain. The government is 100% behind the objective of getting net migration down.”
Phillips said more than a million young people came to the country between 2004 and 2015. “If there isn’t a cap – that’s what we are talking about,” he said.
The minister insisted such a scheme would be “controlled” – but refused to say whether there would be a cap.
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‘It’s going to be a bad deal’
Shadow cabinet office minister Alex Burghart told Phillips an uncapped youth mobility scheme with the EU would lead to “much higher immigration”, adding: “It sounds very much as though it’s going to be a bad deal.”
Asked if the Conservatives would scrap any EU deal, he said: “It depends what the deal is, Trevor. And we still, even at this late stage, we don’t know.
“The government can’t tell us whether everyone will be able to come. They can’t tell us how old the young person is. They can’t tell us what benefits they would get.
“So I think when people hear about a youth mobility scheme, they think about an 18-year-old coming over working at a bar. But actually we may well be looking at a scheme which allows 30-year-olds to come over and have access to the NHS on day one, to claim benefits on day one, to bring their extended families.”
He added: “So there are obviously very considerable disadvantages to the UK if this deal is done in the wrong way.”
Jose Manuel Barroso, former EU Commission president, told Phillips it “makes sense” for a stronger relationship to exist between the European Union and the UK, adding: “We are stronger together.”
He said he understood fishing and youth mobility are the key sticking points for a UK-EU deal.
“Frankly, what is at stake… is much more important than those specific issues,” he said.
Gary Lineker is to leave the BBC after this season’s final Match Of The Day and will no longer present its coverage of the World Cup, Sky News understands.
It comes after he “apologised unreservedly” for a social media repost featuring a rat – used in propaganda by Nazi Germany to dehumanise Jewish people – and said he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic”.
Lineker’s last appearance on the BBC will be on 25 May, the final day of the season, with confirmation expected on Monday.
The former England star announced in November he would step down from Match Of The Day this year, but was set to return to front the World Cup in 2026, as well as FA Cup coverage.
Lineker, 64, said he was unaware the post he shared was antisemitic and it went against “everything I believe in”.
In response to the presenter resharing the post, the Campaign Against Antisemitism said his “continued association with the BBC is untenable”.
And when asked about Lineker last week, BBC director general Tim Davie said: “When someone makes a mistake, it costs the BBC reputationally.”
The presenter was temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 after an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the then Conservative government’s asylum policy.
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Lineker has hosted Match Of The Day since 1999 and has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years. He also has a successful podcast production company.
Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan will share the role of presenting Match of the Day. Pic BBC/PA
Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan will take over the highlights show from next season.
When the trio take over as hosts, it will be the first time the role has been shared by three people.
Sky News has contacted the BBC for comment.
A teenager has been arrested after a 16-year-old boy died following reports of a “disturbance” at a beach in Ayrshire.
Kayden Moy was found seriously injured by officers at Irvine Beach at around 6.45pm on Saturday.
The teenager, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, was taken to hospital but died in the early hours.
Police Scotland said on Sunday evening that a 17-year-old boy had been arrested and enquires were continuing.
Officers believe the incident may have been filmed and have urged witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.
Kayden. Pic: Facebook
The incident happened at Irvine Beach in Ayrshire, Scotland. File pic: iStock
Detective Chief Inspector Campbell Jackson said: “An extensive investigation is under way to establish the full circumstances surrounding this death.
“Our officers are supporting the boy’s family at this very difficult and heartbreaking time.
“From our investigation so far, we know there were a number of people on the beach around the time of the disturbance.
“We believe several of them were filming at the time and may have footage of what happened.
“I would urge people to review the footage they have and contact police if they think the footage captured could be of significance to our investigation.”
This can be submitted anonymously, the force said.
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Superintendent Jim McMillan added: “We understand this death will be of great concern for the local community, but please be assured that we are doing everything we can to identify those involved.
“There will be additional patrols in the area as we carry out our enquiries and anyone with any concerns can approach these officers.”
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