Proposition to make it easier for French residents to visit the Channel Islands

A Guernsey politician says that conversations should be had over how to make it easier for French visitors to come to the Channel Islands.

New regulations to be introduced next year will mean visitors between Jersey, Guernsey and France will no longer be able to just use identity cards to travel.

Deputy Chris Blin believes with just 46% of French residents owning passports and a recent drop in tourism from the country, the Channel Islands are heading towards an economic and cultural crisis.

He says: “If we don't look at finding an alternative for an island which desperately needs to be economically enabled, we are pushing ourselves into a corner.

"We'll lose a considerable chunk of our visiting tourists."

How did travel to the Channel Islands work before Brexit?

Before Brexit, there was free movement around the EU for all its citizens.

They could travel to the Channel Islands on just an identity card, without needing a passport.

Separately, the Common Travel Area (CTA) allows passportless movement between the UK, our islands and also Ireland.

How does travel to the Channel Islands work and what is changing?

Following Brexit, EU nationals require a passport to enter the CTA.

However, French visitors coming to the Channel Islands were made an exception.

Jersey and Guernsey's governments extended a scheme allowing French day trippers to visit the Channel Islands using only their identity cards until September 2025.

The scheme was due to end in September 2024 with visitors from France being able to use their identity cards as an alternative to passports to boost the islands' tourism and hospitality sectors.

However, the UK government, as well as the States of Guernsey and Jersey, will introduce an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) programme which is currently planned for the end of 2025.

Deputy Blin has warned that the introduction of an ETA system could dissuade cruise lines, low-income tourists, and French visitors from coming to the islands.

What is Deputy Chris Blin proposing?

Deputy Blin says there are examples of exemptions being made, including the Irish soft border.

The Northern Ireland Protocol allows for an open border between the south and north island, and therefore the EU and the UK.

Deputy Blin says: "The best example I can give you is currently what's happening in other CTA members like Ireland, where they have both the Schengen route and the CTA route.

"What I'd like to see here is a real driving push - almost on a pan-island working of the Bailiwicks to ensure we can work with the UK Government to allow these sort of exemptions like Ireland is doing."

Irish lecturer Dr Connal Parr says granting exceptions isn't a simple process, but Guernsey is the right kind of size to enact changes.

He explains: "For a place and territory as small as this and has the kind of attributes and history that we're talking about here, you need to make those kinds of stipulations and allowances.

Even if a proposal comes forward, the decision sits with the Home Office in the UK which would need to grant any exemption.

ITV Channel has approached the UK's Home Office for comment.

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