\n\t\t\t\t\tMinisters are also considering writing to more countries, including travel hotspots like Spain and France\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
The UK has directly urged Germany and the Netherlands to open passport e-gates to Britons<\/a> in time for the summer holidays amid fears travellers still face queues despite the Brexit reset deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to Berlin and The Hague in a bid to get the e-gates up and running by summer as the Government looks to deliver benefits from its deal with Brussels as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n Thomas-Symonds has also written to Greece to urge the country to allow Britons to use e-gates \u201cnow\u201d, arguing that it would be a \u201csignificant symbol\u201d of its \u201cfriendship\u201d with Britain.<\/p>\n The i Paper understands Thomas-Symonds\u2019 letters to Germany and the Netherlands contained a similar message and that he is also considering writing to more countries, including travel hotspots like Spain and France, while balancing diplomatic sensitivity.<\/p>\n Sir Keir Starmer said last week\u2019s deal with the EU would bring an end to \u201chuge queues at passport control\u201d by allowing UK citizens to use e-gates, which are currently restricted to European travellers in most countries.<\/p>\n But the arrangement still has to be signed off by individual member states, meaning there is no guarantee it will be in place by the summer holidays.<\/p>\n The deal also envisaged that Britons would only be allowed to use the e-gates after the EU\u2019s new entry\/exit system comes into force in October, which itself is predicted to cause delays due to a separate need for travellers to input biometric data at ports and airports the first time they go to the continent after its introduction.<\/p>\n In some European airports, such as in Portugal, British visitors are allowed to use e-gates but still have to get their passports stamped because of Brexit restrictions that limit visa-free visits to the EU to 180 days a year, or 90 days at a time.<\/p>\n The post-Brexit rules have caused queues that can sometimes be hours-long, but EU citizens are allowed to use e-gates, which tend to be much faster, at British ports and airports.<\/p>\n Starmer\u2019s Brexit reset deal with Brussels this week formally noted that there are \u201cno legal barriers to e-gate use for British nationals traveling to and from European Union member states\u201d after the introduction of EES.<\/p>\n But the Prime Minister said he would be \u201cpressing hard\u201d for member states to throw open e-gates to British travellers sooner, in a bid to help those on their summer getaways.<\/p>\n Labour MP Luke Charters said: \u201cIt\u2019s great to see the Government taking action to cut passport queues for British holidaymakers heading to Europe.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been campaigning for this, and it\u2019s absolutely right to prioritise popular summer destinations.<\/p>\n \u201cCountries like Greece and Spain should now move quickly to roll out eGate access.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter all, shorter queues mean British tourists spend less time waiting and therefore spend more money enjoying themselves in those countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers are also considering writing to more countries, including travel hotspots like Spain and France The UK has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[802,57780,2000,299,1824,3027,10785,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-130988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-brexit-travel","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-politics-news","14":"tag-summer-holidays","15":"tag-travel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114569242622505751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}