EU citizens will need a passport to enter the UK from October 2021. This emerges from a UK government model for future European border traffic that was published today in London. ID cards should no longer be accepted. The new regulation also applies to travelers from Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
Identity cards were one of the “least secure documents”, it said, and the requirement to have a passport will strengthen Britain’s security. The country left the EU at the end of January. However, there is still a transition phase until the end of December, during which hardly anything changes in practice. At the turn of the year, without an agreement on a trade pact, there is a risk of a hard economic break with tariffs and other obstacles.
