LONDON — The U.K. is “always” trying to “find ways to minimize unnecessary waiting times for British nationals,” Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said Tuesday, following a report the prime minister is seeking a deal with the EU to cut post-Brexit passport checks.
Bloomberg reported that Sunak, who has sought to repair ties with the European Union after years of post-Brexit acrimony under his predecessor, is eyeing an agreement with the bloc that would allow British citizens to sail through the EU’s electronic gates for passport checks.
Since Brexit, most British travelers making their way through the bloc’s airports have been expected to queue for a manned desk, where passports are checked and then stamped.
Bloomberg said British diplomats had raised the matter informally. Pressed on that report Tuesday, a spokesperson for Sunak said they were not aware of any “live discussions to that end,” but that the U.K. would “always want to find ways to minimize unnecessary waiting times for British nationals.”
The U.K. currently allows EU travelers to use its own e-gates, but the European Commission is instead looking to an upcoming “smart” external border process — known as the Entry-Exit System (EES) — to cut processing times more widely and ditch the need for passport stamps. That plan has been hit by delays and is now not expected to come on stream until 2024.
Spain and Portugal have already reduced processing times by allowing British visitors with biometric passports to use e-gates at some international airports — but the lack of a broader deal is one of several reasons there are long queues at EU borders.
Sunak’s spokesperson said Tuesday: “We are working closely with the European Commission and member states to understand the impact of the introduction of the entry and exit system for British citizens.”
But it would, they added, “be welcome if there were wider use of e-gates for non-EU nationals. It’s in both our interests and the interests of the countries which British nationals visit as tourists, for example.”
