Britain and France have reached an agreement on re-opening the border, two days after the French government banned all UK arrivals, including hauliers, over concerns about a new variant of the CCP virus detected in the UK.
“Good progress today and agreement with the French Government on borders,” Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter.
However, lorry drivers are still advised not to travel to ports on England’s south coast such as Dover.
“We will provide an update on hauliers later this evening, but hauliers must still NOT travel to Kent this evening,” Shapps said.
French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said travellers can enter France only if they can provide a negative COVID-19 test result.
“Planes, boats and Eurostar will resume their service from tomorrow morning. French citizens, French residents and those who have a legitimate purpose must provide a negative test,” he wrote on Twitter.
“For goods transport, we will communicate on the sanitary protocol a little later in the evening. I invite road carriers not to come to the places of embarkation before the official announcements,” he wrote in French.
“Given the need to ensure essential travel and transit home as described in the recommendation, any prohibition of transport services, such as flight or train bans, should be discontinued,” said the Commission, the executive body of the European Union.
