Against the backdrop of increasingly realistic prospects for Britain to secede from the EU without an agreement, the French customs service held a “dress rehearsal” of tight control at the English Channel.
The Minister of State Budget of France, Gerald Darmanin, has been staying in the port of Ouistreham in Normandy since this morning. In this place, customs officers carried out a thorough passport control of arrivals and even practiced in sanitary inspections.
Following the results of these “exercises,” Darmanin assured that “France is ready” for the “tough” scenario, because there will be no traffic jams due to tightening of customs control. In addition, to ensure the stable operation of customs, the country’s authorities expanded funding for the department, sending 40 million euros there, and increased the staff by seven hundred people. The monetary resource was aimed at equipping checkpoints with CCTV cameras that scan license plates of cars, etc.
It is worth noting that, according to information from the UK government, up to 85 percent of British trucks may not be ready for French customs checks if there is no deal with Brussels, which reduces the flow rate to 40-60 percent of current levels.