France is expected to reopen its border with the UK but only to its own nationals, French residents and professionals such as truck drivers, all of whom will have to provide a recent negative test, France’s public broadcaster has reported.
Britons or other non-French nationals with a permanent residence in France will be able to return, but the border is set to remain closed to all other non-French citizens in the UK, France Info said. It was not yet clear how long the measures would be in place.
The announcement came as the European commission advised all 27 member states to discontinue bans on flights and trains from the UK and to reopen freight routes to “ensure essential supply chains continue to function”, including for Covid vaccines. The restrictions were brought in to reduce the spread of a new coronavirus variant discovered in the UK.
The EU’s executive branch said UK nationals still had the right to free movement until 1 January and “should be exempted from further temporary restrictions provided that they undergo a test or quarantine”.
Cargo flows “need to continue uninterrupted … not least to ensure the timely distribution of Covid-19 vaccines”, the commission said. Brussels warned, however, that at the end of the transition period only “essential” travel will be permitted unless the member states add the UK to a list of countries exempted from restrictions.
Didier Reynders, the commissioner for justice, said: “Given the current uncertainties and in light of the precautionary principle, member states should take coordinated action to discourage non-essential travel between the UK and the EU.
“At the same time, blanket travel bans should not prevent thousands of EU and UK citizens from returning to their homes.”
France’s new rules, intended to counter the spread of the new, faster-spreading variant, are expected to be announced officially this afternoon, France Info said, citing government sources.
It said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Boris Johnson had spoken by phone on Tuesday morning about measures to ease the chaos at Britain’s ports after France’s decision on Sunday to close its border to all traffic from the UK for 48 hours.
The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, said earlier on Tuesday that the government was talking to the French authorities about testing all hauliers leaving Britain to allow freight and passengers to travel again.
She confirmed more than 1,500 lorries were stuck in Kent on Tuesday morning. The queues have formed since France imposed a ban on any accompanied freight or cargo entering the country from Britain, triggering government crisis plans at Dover and other major pinch points.
Patel told BBC Breakfast: “Testing of some sort is part of the discussions that the transport secretary is having with his counterpart in France right now.
“Getting those tests up and running can happen pretty quickly, but in terms of the details, that is something both the transport secretary and his counterpart will be discussing right now so I don’t want to speculate in terms of the nature of the testing and how soon that can be up and running,” she said.
Patel was questioned about the claim of the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, in a Downing Street press conference on Monday night that there were only about 170 lorries waiting to cross the Channel, only to be later contradicted by Highways England, which said there were about 900.
She said the number of lorries would “fluctuate” but that on Tuesday morning there were 650 on the M20 and a further 873 at Manston airfield, which is being used as a contraflow site to ease the tailbacks.
She added: “So for example, there would have been many hauliers yesterday dropping off their goods in other parts of the country and then going back down to Dover. Of course, the No 1 message has been to avoid Dover.”
Patel said the UK and French authorities were working towards a resolution to unblock the ports and that Shapps may give a further update later on Tuesday.
She told Sky News: “It’s in both our interests, both countries, to ensure that we have flow and, of course, there are European hauliers right now who want to be going home, and quite frankly it’s in both our interests to carry on those discussions and negotiations and we will see what materialises today.”
There are concerns about the welfare of lorry drivers waiting to cross the Channel, with one trade body saying drivers had been given only a single cereal bar each despite being stuck in their cabs for more than 24 hours.
Rod McKenzie, the managing director of the Road Haulage Association, told BBC Breakfast: “Clearly those drivers have spent a second night parked up somewhere, possibly on a motorway, possibly somewhere else, trying to get across the Channel, and many of them are European drivers trying to get home for Christmas, and their morale is very poor.
“Yesterday, Kent county council offered each of them one cereal bar, which is a pretty poor effort, I think, in terms of maintaining their morale, and their spirits.”
McKenzie said toilet facilities were also a “big issue”, with concerns over health and cleanliness. “We are not treating them well as a country, we are not treating lorry drivers well in these very difficult conditions that they are in at the moment.”
