Pressure on UK Prime Minister to Request Suspension of EU Border System

▶ Pressure on UK Prime Minister to Request Suspension of EU Border System

▶ The UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been urged to directly contact European leaders to ask them to suspend the new Entry-Exit System (EES). This call comes as the peak weekend for overseas holidays begins, with millions of British travellers heading abroad.

▶ About 2.2 million British holidaymakers are expected to travel between Friday and Monday, mostly to Europe, as all schools in the UK are now on summer break. The Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesperson, Calum Miller, speaking at Heathrow Airport on Friday morning, said the prime minister needed to call on EU states to drop the “bungled, malfunctioning border system” until at least September.

▶ The EES, which requires non-EU citizens to register on arrival and be photographed and fingerprinted, has been technically in full force since April after launching last year. However, border police have been allowed to relax requirements during extreme delays. Despite this, some passengers have missed flights, while others have had to queue for several hours.

▶ Miller added: “Holidaymakers and hauliers should not be punished by a bungled, malfunctioning border system that is completely out of their control. Andy Burnham needs to pick up the phone to each and every European leader – and persuade them, collectively, to suspend the EES until at least September.” He said a disastrous Brexit deal puts at risk millions of Britons' holidays due to this broken EU border system.

▶ The travel association Abta said Spain would be the main destination this weekend, with strong demand also for Greece, Portugal, Italy and Turkey. Its chief executive, Mark Tanzer, advised passengers to leave plenty of time for their journeys. “For many heading overseas, this will be the first experience of EES, and for some, though not all, it may take longer than usual to get through passport control,” he said.

▶ Greece has already indicated it will not impose the additional biometric checks on UK nationals, who make up the majority of its incoming non-EU tourists. Meanwhile, problems with the technology provided to France mean that automated booths at its borders are not working.

▶ The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has met EU commissioners and her French counterpart, speaking again last week to raise concerns. A government spokesperson said: “While the new EES checks are a matter for the EU, we recognise this is a significant change for British travellers and are doing everything we can to get people away on their summer holidays with as little hassle as possible.”

▶ That includes money for EES facilities and management of traffic at the port of Dover. For cross-Channel traffic, French border posts are in the UK – prompting concerns of tailbacks over the peak getaway period. However, French border police have decided not to fingerprint or photograph car travellers at ferry ports or the Eurotunnel terminal, and traffic has so far passed smoothly.

▶ The port of Dover said it was expecting its busiest days of the summer on Friday and Saturday, with just over 10,000 cars on top of the usual haulage traffic. Queueing time had not exceeded 40 minutes and had been as little as 10 minutes.

▶ Return flights from Europe for UK citizens will be the biggest anxiety. EasyJet urged the EU on Thursday to extend the flexibility to suspend the EES until the end of October.