Travel News

BY Simon Calder

Great barrier grief: that is what the UK government promises to end, at least for British travellers to Germany.

“Millions of UK travellers to Germany will be able to use e-gates in the future thanks to a new agreement made between prime minister Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz today,” the Cabinet Office says.

“Germany will roll out the first phase of e-gates access for UK travellers by the end of August, starting with frequent travellers such as Brits with family in Germany or who travel regularly for business.”

I have asked the Cabinet Office how this will work: how do the e-gates (or the staff in charge) know whether I have family in Germany? In the absence of a a cousin in Cologne or a daughter in Dresden, might I squeak in as a regular business traveller; I have also asked how frequently must I visit to qualify?

In any event, once through the e-gates a smiling German official will need to stamp my passport– in accordance with what the UK demanded when leaving the European Union.

Boris Johnson’s fearless negotiators insisted that we would become “third-country nationals” not required to obtain a visa.

Brussels capitulated to our wish to spend hours waiting in queues; to discover that rules on passports validity meant thousands would be turned away from planes; and to have our documents minutely examined to ensure we have not spent more than 90 days in the past 180 days within the Schengen area.

Our illustrious status is shared with many other citizens, from East Timor to El Salvador. But unlike them, the British traditionally make tens of millions of journeys to the EU each year.

We would love to make more of those trips by rail, but the tangle of red tape we negotiated means there isn’t enough space for processing passengers at London St Pancras International, the Eurostar hub. Yet here’s the the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, promising “a direct connection linking London and Berlin” could be in place “in just a matter of years”.

The press was briefed that trains from the UK to Germany could be running by 2030. Allow me to present an equally plausible transport goal for the next five years: “Personal jet packs for all.”

The UK government is clutching at bureaucratic straws with claims such as “Estonia has confirmed they will open up access at Tallinn airport in 2026”. Wise ministers surely know they should be yelling from the rooftops something that the most ardent Leave voter must accept: “Brexit has proved deeply damaging for British travellers to Europe, and we need to fix it.”

Tourists, students, business travellers and those with family in the EU have all suffered from the self-harm administered by Brexit.

Your ease of access to the EU this summer depends on your DNA and/or birthplace. UK citizens wise enough to have ancestry in Ireland, north or south, can obtain an EU passport and regain all the travel freedoms we asked to be taken away.

For everyone else: we need to negotiate a special status that reflects our passion for Europe.