France holidays to cost families more as result of Brexit border checks
Passengers are set to face holiday price hikes due to the cost of postponed EU border security checks, a senior Eurotunnel official has warned.
Passengers have been warned they face delays at some ports and international stations â namely Dover, the Eurotunnel and St Pancras â due to increased waiting times for registration under the new Entry/Exit System (EES) before people leave the UK.
The EES â which will see Britons travelling to Europe subjected to new fingerprint checks at UK borders â was delayed for the second time last week after EU states said the blocâs technology to roll it out wasnât ready.
Kent authorities had already warned that handheld tablets to process Dover passengersâ biometrics hadnât been received or tested before the planned 10 November launch.
John Keefe, the corporate and public affairs chief for GetLink group, which owns Eurotunnel, told a parliamentary committee session that millions of pounds spent getting its terminals ready for EES would âinevitablyâ now be passed on to passengers.
The post-Brexit EES will replace manual stamping of passports and require non-EU nationals including Britons to provide facial scans and fingerprints when crossing to the Schengen area â which encompasses most EU countries.
But Germanyâs interior ministry raised fears over the âstability and functionalityâ of the computer to be used by EU-Lisa, the EU agency implementing the new system, with Brussels suggesting a phased launch instead after the scheme was pushed back again.
While EES checks will be carried out at airports, ports and train stations across the country, there is particular concern about the impact at often already-congested Dover, where traffic jams of up to 14 hours have been predicted due to longer processing times for passengers.
Meanwhile, in a letter to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee, Immigration Minister Seema Malhotra said the new European Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias) visa waiver scheme for UK citizens is also now likely to be delayed.
Cross-Channel operators and council leaders told the parliamentary committee they still did not know when EES would be launched.
Mr Keefe said his firm had spent âŹ80 million (ÂŁ67 million) to build infrastructure, technology and recruit staff in preparation for EES.
Speaking to peers Mr Keefe said: âWeâll be sitting on âŹ80m spent to develop the technology, build the infrastructure, to do the modelling using Artificial Intelligence, to install all of the kiosks that we had specially built to operate in the vehicle environment.
âAll of that will have to be put into hibernation. So thatâs a cost that we will have to carry because of this
âA cost like this inevitably is passed on to the consumer.
âThis delay and the introduction of EES has cost in itself âŹ80 million, so whether itâs delayed or itâs live now, there is still a cost that is carried by the consumer.â
He also indicated that the company, which has installed more than 200 kiosks at its Folkestone terminal and in France, could take legal action against the EU to recover the money spent in anticipation of a November go-live date.
âWe are considering cost recovery. We have followed the project to the letter,â Mr Keefe said.
Kevin Mills, Labour leader of Dover District Council, said there has been âno interaction at allâ with the Department of Transport about Government plans to secure off-road parking to stack tourist cars if roads to the port clogged up.
He also warned of potential security issues if Border Force staff were unable to get to work if the town was in gridlock, adding going ahead with EES next month would have caused âcomplete and utter carnageâ
âIn Dover. Itâs not just the A20, the whole town stops, nothing moves. When you see ambulances stuck in queues, you start to worry,â he said.
âIf we donât get this right, it will backlog. So it doesnât matter, with respect to Eurotunnel, how much work theyâve done, if those queues keep going back it will get on to their site and then it backs up into the rest of Kent. So it has a national implication.â
An app is being prepared by the European Commission so passengers can log details before travelling, a move itâs hoped will drastically speed up traffic flow, but is not expected until at least next summer.
Mr Keefe said the app would be for subsequent travel to the EU, with those travelling to the bloc still required to go through checks at juxtaposed portals like Dover on their first journey to the bloc after EES launches.
Eurotunnel was also looking at technology that can capture facial biometrics in moving vehicles so passengers donât have to stop at a particular location, he added.
At a press conference last week, EU interior minister, Ylva Johansson, the Commissioner for Home Affairs, said there was no new timeline for when the scheme would be launched.