Counting down to EES

In the course of the last week, I had the opportunity to highlight to a parliamentary committee the challenges to Kent from the anticipated introduction of the European Union’s Entry Exit System (EES). You can find Kent County Council’s media release on this here.

Deirdre Wells, chief executive of Visit Kent, Andrew Osborne, head of economic development at Ashford Borough Council and I gave evidence to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday. EES, which brings with it requirements for biometric checks on entry to the EU external frontier, is now expected (after a number of delays) to be introduced in October. This raises the prospect of long delays because of the very constrained space within the Port of Dover, resulting in further large scale disruption to Kent’s roads, businesses and visitor economy, in addition to its impact on the quality of residents’ lives.

We had a good hearing from the Committee, and I set out the need to ensure that, at the very minimum, there is extensive communication and preparation; but we must make every effort to present the case for some form of pre-registration. While Kent County Council and our partners in the county will more than play our part, this is above all a matter for government. We are seeing government respond to this approaching crisis, and raised this successfully in a recent visit by the Roads Minister, Guy Opperman. But as I pointed out, we are not yet seeing the scale of government focus and preparation that we had in the run up to the end of Brexit transition in 2020. Yet the effects could be at least as great.