From the Daily Mail:
Britons could need visas to visit France if the UK does crash out of the EU without a deal.
As Theresa May arrived in Brussels for a crunch summit, the French government ramped up its preparations for a no-deal Brexit and said Britons would become ‘nationals of third parties’ and would probably need travel permits to visit.
That's their unilateral decision, isn't it? You can't blame that on Brexit.
Thursday, 18 October 2018
Nobody move or the French tourism industry gets hurt!
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14 comments:
That's their unilateral decision, isn't it? You can't blame that on Brexit.
Exactly.
I wonder if English seaside towns mostly* voted heavily for Brexit precisely because they hoped it would make it far more difficult and expensive for Brits to holiday abroad?
*Brighton of course voted heavily Remain (no doubt because it's full of hipsters), and Tynemouth (especially surprisingly given that it is in the North East) voted 52-48 Remain. I wonder if Tynemouth's referendum vote was turned by residents who regularly use the DFDS ferry to Amsterdam?
JH, thanks.
GC, I think that it's because sea side towns have more pensioners, who in turn were more likely to vote Leave.
Hence neatly killing off a lucrative export. Anyway, mostly I use France as a place to drive through to get to Italy, or Switzerland.
Prior to the existence of the EU, visas were not needed to visit France: just passports. Thus I assume this is French bloody mindedness.
Can France (or any other Schengen signatory) actually make such a decision unilaterally? I thought there was a single visa to access the whole of Schengenland...
RM, stop dragging facts into this!
GC, details, details.
As France has signed the Schengen Treaty - which guarantees free travel within the Schengen Area - it can be assumed that - after a no-deal Brexit - UK citizens would have to apply for access into the Schengen Area. The 2 possible scenarios are that the UK would apply for Schengen membership - you don't have to be an EU country to participate (like Switzerland) or they would have to agree somekind of visa waiver agreement with the Schengen Area. As this will take months if not years to agree it will be Schengen Visas for some time. And they will be processed very slowly and will be very expensive, I guess.
...in other words nothing specifically to do with "French bloody mindedness".
More like typical British cherry picking... :)
U, if the Schengen members collectively see an advantage in making life difficult for British tourists and business visitors, no doubt they will do so. I fail to see what advantage there is to be gained. Does anybody know how this benefits them overall? Genuine question, by the way.
PC, come off it. This is part of the federalists' punishment regimen.
Visas aside, the French will want to apply customs controls on entry to their ports. I can't see this doing any good to the trade Dieppe gets from daytrippers from Newhaven, who get just a few hours ashore - just enough for a leisurely lunch.
"PC, come off it. This is part of the federalists' punishment regimen."
I doubt it. The French have always hated us politically, for 900 years at least. They were delighted when the UK decided to leave the EU, seeing it as a chance to stop having to be civil to us and to really put the boot in again when they could.
MW, it is not about advantage, it would just be a brilliant way for the EU to show the UK citizen/voter on an individual basis that leaving the EU was a bad idea. And at 70$ a pop a Schengen Visa is already expensive. By the way, there is a 90/180 day rule attached so do the English have to say bye-bye to the second home in the Med?
Ph and U, they are cutting off noses to spite faces.
B, true.
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