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The United Kingdom today enters the world of customs and borders that awaits it after leaving the EU, although the inactivity of the New Year and the precautions of companies and travelers made the transit flow today without major problem.
The Spanish María Soneira did not want scares. She has lived in Southampton (southern England) for eight years and today she was returning there with her boyfriend after spending a few days on vacation in Lisbon, fearing that the lack of any paper would prevent her from getting home. “We weren’t sure how to prove that you have the right to live here from the 1st, because they didn’t make it very clear,” he told Efe as soon as he set foot in London’s Heathrow airport, just a few hours after Brexit materialized. .
When in doubt, better arm yourself with a wad of papers under your arm. “We didn’t know if we were going to have to stamp the passport, if we would have to prove something … We came with everything printed just in case, so that we could at least show it and then see what happened. But there has been no problem, ”explained this human resources worker at a cruise company.
Will I be able to bring my pate?
Like her and her boyfriend André, thousands of Europeans returned today restless to the country that received them when they could still settle there without the need for a visa. The hasty agreement with the EU to define the post-Brexit relationship, which was settled just a week ago, caused the most strange doubts to assail travelers.
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Something like this happened to the Frenchman Sébastien Paseau when he decided to equip himself with pate and sweets to cross the English Channel aboard the Eurostar train. Luckily for him, his “merchandise” was not seized or controlled. “I looked if I had the right to bring the same things, my food … in case there would be customs duties. I saw that there was no particular information on the matter, so I went as usual and there has been no additional review ”, said this young man, a resident of the United Kingdom for two and a half years, with a smile.
Apprehension is not the exclusive heritage of the community members who arrive on the island. Britons living in the EU also have the unpleasant new experience of placing themselves in line for ‘third countries’ when they reach their destination.
For Peter Jordan these have been a bitter Christmas. He traveled to England to attend his mother’s funeral on December 18, but coronavirus restrictions, which forced the cancellation of up to three flights and one ferry he had booked, forced him to not be able to return home to Frankfurt, Germany. until today.
“This is the first opportunity to return. Unfortunately, January 1, with Brexit, is not the best time to travel, but I want to go home. I am nervous about passing the border control of countries outside the EU, which is the big difference that I am going to notice ”, stressed this Englishman, who lives“ very sad ”this day of separation.
Calm in Dover
The plethora of paperwork and red tape waiting for carriers in the new post-Brexit era did not affect transit through Dover, the main port of entry and exit for goods between the continent and the United Kingdom, on its first day.
The British Treasury estimates that the adjustments to this new situation will add 7,000 million pounds (more than 7,800 million euros) to the costs of doing business with the EU.
Despite this, an agreement to exempt products that go through customs from declarations of origin for one year should help to make trade more fluid, especially in the automotive sector, where production chains are practically interwoven.
A truck driven by the carrier Slavi Ivanov Shumeykov was the first to start this new stage when it passed in the town of Folkestone, in the southeast of England, the Eurotunnel controls, the tunnel under the English Channel, at eleven o’clock Thursday night, the moment the breakup materialized.
See more: The British Parliament supports the Brexit agreement with a large majority
Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe said that things went well on Friday and that everything “is quiet”, as few trucks have crossed, as expected. The disconnection had created concern among companies after the scenes seen a week ago, with thousands of truckers stranded, after France closed its border due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Meanwhile, the first ferries from the United Kingdom arrived in Ireland without excessive shocks, except in some cases in which the port authority forced boats to turn around for not having the required documentation, as happened to six positions of the Stena company Line.
The Ulysses boat, from the Irish Ferries company, was the first to dock in Ireland from the United Kingdom this morning at 5.55 GMT carrying a dozen trucks from Holyhead, Wales.
