France acts to stem queuing truck chaos after no-deal Brexit

France has detailed its plans for handling a no-deal ­Brexit, with measures to avert chaos at Channel ports.

France’s Minister for European Affairs, Nathalie Loiseau, says a hard Brexit would be’extremely costly’ for Britain. Picture: AFP

France has detailed its plans for handling a no-deal ­Brexit, with measures to avert chaos at Channel ports and ensure the continu­ed rights of French and British expatriates.

Last week, the French parliament approv­ed a bill that allows the government to take emergency measures by decree, with the aim of “protecting our national interests and those of our fellow citizens”.

Europe minister Nathalie Lois­eau said France would guarantee the residence, employment and welfare rights of the 160,000 resident British citizens living there provided Britain offered the same guarantees to French expatriates.

A hard Brexit would be “extreme­ly costly” for Britain, Ms Loiseau said. The impact would be less severe in France, although a negotiated departure was infin­ite­ly preferable, she added.

“Our collective responsibility is to ensure that France is ready for all the possibilities on March 29 at midnight,” Ms Loiseau said.

The state and local authorities in the Channel area have been working hard to limit the delays that will be inevitable for vehicles entering and leaving what will be a new customs frontier.

The nightmare for Calais and the other ports is the prospect of queues of trucks backing up on motorways. Stationary trucks would be targets for migrants hopin­g to stow away onboard and reach England.

Xavier Bertrand, the chairman of the Hauts-de-France region, which includes Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk, said two minutes of additional paperwork for each truck crossing would cause a 27km tailback on the approaching motor­ways. French and British customs and immigration officials have been consulting on handling the impact of a full-scale frontier suddenly emerging at the ports and Channel tunnel access points.

The authorities have been exper­imenting with a Fastpass system for trucks leaving Calais for Britain, in which hauliers will be able to complete customs formal­ities online before reaching the port. Jean-Marc Puissesseau, chief of the Calais port authority, said that with online customs procedures and cameras reading numberplates, delays should be limited.

“There is a risk that we will have to stack lorries on the motorway, but we are doing our upmost to avoid that,” he said.

Main employers’ federation Medef has opened a unit to advise firms on doing business with Britain in the event of a hard Brexit.

The Times