The UK Government is imploring French border authorities to relax Entry/Exit System checks as summer traffic threatens to overwhelm Dover and the Channel Tunnel - with MPs warning that freight could become trapped in queues lasting up to 12 hours.
The warning follows concerns raised by the Port of Dover’s Chief Executive, Doug Bannister, earlier this month that tourist traffic undergoing EES processing could spill onto the approaches used by freight, trapping HGVs despite the fact that many lorry drivers do not need to register under the system.
EES primarily affects non-EU travellers entering the Schengen area, rather than introducing a new cargo-control procedure for HGVs. The risk for road freight is caused by passenger vehicles and lorries relying on the same port approaches and parts of the same road network around Dover and Folkestone – meaning that delays caused by biometric registration can have a knock-on effect on commercial traffic.
Dover has called for EES checks to be suspended during the summer or stood down selectively before queues begin to form. During the recent May half-term, delays reached around 4.5 hours after only a few hours of EES processing, while summer months can see more than 12,000 tourist vehicles a day.
Border security minister Alex Norris told the House of Commons on Wednesday 8 July, that, when traffic volumes peak, authorities could face a choice between keeping vehicles moving and fully applying the new border system. He said that the Government was putting daily pressure on France and the European Commission to ensure French border police use the flexibilities available under EES to prioritise traffic flow.
However, the Government is not calling for EES to be suspended completely. Instead, ministers want checks to be adjusted at specific peak periods, using traffic forecasts to identify problems before queues form. Similar flexibilities were used on Saturday 23 May, when French border police changed their procedures to relieve congestion on the Kent road network during the late May bank holiday.
The Government said discussions with France, the European Commission and transport operators would continue daily ahead of the summer peak, with the immediate objective of allowing border officers to relax procedures before congestion reaches critical levels.