The little “French” may visit their neighbors across the Channel less frequently next year. A new measure to register online before traveling to the UK will inevitably influence the number of school trips planned for next year, says the president of Les Entreprises du Voyage valerie bonedwho addressed the British Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, on October 8, reports the Financial times AND the guardian this Sunday, October 27.
From April 2, 2025, you will have to go through a digital platform and pay around 12 euros (or £10) to obtain the “electronic travel authorization” (ETA). This measure will apply to both long-term workers (since this visa will be valid for two years) and to tourists passing through.
In fact, the obligation to use a visa to travel to the United Kingdom, even for a very short period, will result in the imposition of a passport on French students.
Macron-Sunak deal undermined
In December 2023, Emmanuel Macron and the then British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, reached an agreement to “stimulate French school trips to Great Britain,” as reported by The Guardian, upon presentation of the travel card.
An agreement that will inevitably fall apart next April with the introduction of the ETA visa for short and long stays.
“The sooner we manage to resolve the situation, the less impact it will have on the number of school trips by 2025,” said Valérie Boned in the letter addressed to the British Home Secretary.
As our English colleagues at the Guardian point out, the program chosen by the two heads of state had allowed, from December 2023, a 30% increase in school trips to the United Kingdom. An increase that resulted in the relaunch of visits to the United Kingdom after the shocks related to Brexit in 2019 and the Covid-19 crisis shortly after.
The current British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, under pressure from Brussels to “reset” relations between the United Kingdom and the members of the European Union, has so far not reacted to the controversy.
Silence also on the part of the Ministry of the Interior which, despite the requests of Valérie Boned, has not yet commented on this issue.
Source: BFM TV
