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French school trips to the UK could be complicated due to new ETA travel rules
Credit: Shutterstock: Prostock-studio
French school trips to the UK are currently “at risk” under new UK rules.
A program underway to increase the number of school trips by French children to British schools could fail as post-Brexit rules create new restrictions on entry to the UK. Following a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, new rules have been introduced regarding French school visits. The deal, made in December 2023, will allow French students to travel to Britain with their national identity cards and for non-EU students, visa-free entry to tackle the worrying decline in visiting the UK after Brexit.
ETA scheme due to launch in the UK in 2025 will cause major disruption to school trips to the UK
However, with the UK’s new electronic travel authorization (ETA) system set to launch on April 2, 2025, the French school travel scheme could be under threat. Under the ETA scheme, all visitors from the EU to the UK must register before entry and children must also have a valid passport. The Financial Times has reported that this will greatly complicate the situation for French children who travel to the UK on school trips. According to the Financial Times, Valérie Boned, president of “Les Entreprises du Voyage”, the main trade group for French travel agencies, had written a letter to the Ministry of the Interior asking for information on how to proceed continued with this problem, however, it was not confirmed yet. In his letter, Boned wrote: “The sooner we manage to clean up the situation, the less the impact will be on the number of school trips by 2025.
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Les Entreprises du Voyage said the scheme agreed between Macron and Sunak last year had gone as planned with a 30% increase in school trips to the UK from France. The Financial Times confirmed that French government officials were concerned that when the new ETA measures were implemented it could limit growth in international school travel across the Channel.
Plans to allow youth movement between the UK and the EU have been scrapped by Keir Starmer’s government
The last Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has been under pressure recently about relations between the UK and the EU, with the Labor government promising to “reset” relations with the EU. Priorities include establishing a more flexible youth mobility programme, where young people can move to the UK for fixed periods of time to work. So far, and despite having similar agreements with countries further afield such as Australia and Canada, Keir Starmer has rejected these initiatives.
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2024-10-28 05:47:00
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