In an attempt to improve educational exchanges with the European Union countries, which have significantly decreased since Britain left the EU, the UK government is planning to ease travel rules for French school trips.
The government confirmed that in the next months, they will start permitting children on school trips to the country from France to use their national identity card.
Moreover, as explained by the Financial Times, UK government insiders have also confirmed that the requirement for non-EU citizens to obtain a visa in order to be able to travel with their classmates to the UK will also be dropped.
Non-EU children residing in France will only be required to hold their valid passports provided that they are travelling as part of an official school trip.
While the eased travel rules will initially start applying to French students on school trips, the measure could be extended to include other EU Member States if this new policy proves to be successful.
The decision of the UK government comes as no surprise as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the President of France Emmanuel Macron pledged earlier this year to ease the travel rules for school groups.
Commenting on the matter, a spokesperson said that the relevant authorities are already working on making legal changes. The same stressed that the changes are expected to be delivered soon.
Work is now well underway to introduce these arrangements, including making the legal changes necessary to deliver these changes.
On the other hand, the French authorities did not make any comment regarding the easing of rules.
According to the Financial Times, a survey has shown that the number of school trips from France to the UK dropped up to two-thirds in the year when border controls were introduced following Brexit.
The executive director of the British Educational Travel Association, Emma English, said that they expect the entire industry to support the implementation of the new rules.
She further said that the sooner the new rules get rolled out to include the other EU member states, the better for everyone.
The managing director of Linguastay, Daryl Taylor, also supported the move. He said that this initiative would help the country in restoring its position as one of the most sought-after destinations by European youth groups.
At the same time, Taylor urged the government to implement the new rules as soon as possible and not only for student groups from France.
As revealed, the rules are expected to be officially introduced in the upcoming months and changes will need to be made to existing legislation. However, the government has yet to confirm the move.
