Minister ‘pushing’ for deal over UK use of EU passport e-gates

In United Kingdom
May 18, 2025

MINSTER OF THE BBC Nick Thomas-SymondsBBC

An agreement that would allow the UK passport holders to use EU electronic doors at airports is “pressured,” confirmed a government minister.

European Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, who leads negotiations ahead of a UK-EU Summit in London, said an agreement to prevent people from being trapped in border bars “would be a very sensible goal.”

Speaking to the BBC Sunday with the Laura Kuessberg program, Hey also established his hopes of an agreement on youth mobility and said he was “safe” of changes in lower food prices.

Conservative deputy Alex Burghart said that the government’s proposal agreement could mean that the United Kingdom became a “rules.”

The United Kingdom and the EU will celebrate its first bilateral summit from Brexit on Monday, described by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as a “really significant moment.”

Sir Keir is expected to announce an agreement when the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa.

Ads on trade and security are expected to include British access to an EU defense fund of 150 billion euros (£ 125 billion), in what could be an impulse for defense partners of the United Kingdom.

But reports suggest that they could also be allowing British travelers to use electronic doors at European airports, reduce the tape in food and import exports, and the creation of a youth mobility scheme with the EU.

When describing the conversations as in “the last hours”, Thomas-Symonds said he was focused on works, lower household bills and stronger borders.

When asked if he was sure that British travelers could use EU electronic doors at European airports, he said: “I am certainly pressing so that people can happen much faster.”

“I think we can all agree that not being trapped in the queues and having more time to spend, whether on vacation or on work trips, having more time to do what you want … It would be a very sensible goal.”

The minister said he was sure of an agreement on food, he hoped to bring lower prices, but added that “nothing is remembered until everything agrees.”

He added: “We know that we have had trucks waiting 16 hours, fresh food on the back cannot be exported because, frankly, only all the certifications that are required, we want to reduce that.”

Burghart told the program that his main concern was for the government to be signed with the EU standards and became “a rules policyholder, one of the things we leave specifically when we leave the EU.”

He said that the government had not ruled out the “dynamic alignment”, which would see the equivalent regulatory standards of the United Kingdom and the EU on food and commerce, despite the fact that the United Kingdom is not “in the room” when future decisions are tasks.

He added: “As the government has been ruled out, we have to assume that it is very firmly on the table and is about to happen.

“And if it is about to happen, then it is a surrender of the sovereignty of Great Britain and we will.”

In a deal about whether EU young people can come to live and work in the United Kingdom and vice versa, Thomas-Symonds insisted that he was negotiating around “an intelligent and controlled scheme”, and added that “no one is remotely suggesting that freedom of movement.

The minister did not respond directly to question whether there would be a limit on limited time numbers or visas, as in existing schemes with Australia and Canada, But it made stress “that control element is very important.”

He also denied that there were plans to exempt the number of students from the general migration figures and added that “anything agreed, and emphasizes that this is in the last sensitive hours, it will be consistent with the reduction of the level of net migration as we promised.”

Appearing in the same program, the Democratic Liberal Deputy Calum Miller said he was “concerned about the sense that the government is not taking this moment, in the context of a changed environment, to really go further” in EU’s relations.

The spokesman for the parties, foreign affairs, said that “establishing ourselves in an ambitious path to tow a customs union is the best way to give some certainty to British companies.”

Miller also said that eliminating the bureaucracy between the United Kingdom and the EU could be worth £ 25 billion, and a customs union could further increase revenues.

The reform leader of the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage, affirmed an EU agreement that included a youth mobility scheme and extend the fishing rights for the EU in the British waters would mean that “to a large extent, the Starmer will be descending Brexit” and he “would undo it.”

In statements to the BBC Radio 4 broadcasting house, Farage said that a youth mobility scheme is “free movement of people to children under 30” and “we know that it will be a street in one way, much more will come here will go in the other direction.”

Farage suggested that an agreement in Defense would mean “we will see for the appearance of British soldiers under an EU flag” before adding “EU cooperation absolutely, under an EU flag, no.”

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