The Lords’ European Affairs Committee found that the complexity of current rules for travel between the UK and the EU was acting as a “serious barrier to mobility”, particularly for seasonal workers, such as ski company staff and tour operator reps, as well as business travellers who need to spend longer periods in the EU.

The report, entitled The Future UK-EU Relationship, published on Saturday (29 April) has made a series of recommendations to improve mobility, ahead of a scheduled review in 2025 of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA), which sets out current travel arrangements.

Recommendations include a plea for the existing post-Brexit business and professional travel rules to be “dynamically updated and made more straightforward to navigate and interpret, including for small businesses and independent professionals”.

‘Huge operational challenges’

The travel industry has been struggling to deal with the new rules affecting posted workers, which have been complicated by the Schengen area’s 90 in 180-day restrictions on visa-free travel for non-EU citizens.

UK staff had previously worked visa-free in the EU under the provisions of the Posted Workers Directive but now they can only spend up to 90 days in any 180-day period within the Schengen zone, unless they get a visa.

Luke Petherbridge, Abta’s head of public policy, said this rule was causing “huge operational challenges” for travel businesses in getting UK staff into the EU.

Petherbridge told the committee in his evidence that the 90-day limit was too short for seasonal workers in the tourism sector who typically worked abroad for up to six months per year. He also highlighted the difficulties for coach drivers who were often required to be in the EU for more than 200 days per year before Brexit.

The committee said in its recommendations that it was “particularly disappointed” that “little progress” had been made in improving UK-EU mobility so far following Brexit. They added that there was “mutual benefit” in resolving these issues.

Youth appeal

The report also highlights how young people have particularly been negatively affected by the mobility issues created between the UK and EU, which the committee said was “regrettable”. 

It called on the UK government to “approach the EU about the possibility of entering negotiations around an ambitious reciprocal youth mobility partnership”.

Developing this kind of partnership would allow young people to apply for fixed-term visas to travel and work across the UK and EU on “preferential terms, along the lines of the UK’s existing youth mobility arrangements with various countries”. 

Abta has already called for an expansion of youth mobility arrangements between the UK and EU as a “sensible and realistic” approach to employing staff overseas.

Another area identified for improvement by the committee is the existing regime governing school trips between the UK and EU countries.

“We consider school visits between the UK and the EU to have considerable value as a means of exposing children to different cultures and deeply regret the substantial decline in visits from the EU since 2019,” argued the report.

“The government should reintroduce a youth group travel scheme that would not require pupils travelling on school visits from any EU country to carry individual passports.”

Business travel impact

Corporate travel is also being impacted by the 90/180-day rule, with travel that falls outside this provision being regulated by different rules in each individual EU country. 

The committee heard that business travellers who need to spend longer periods in the EU had found the new rules “particularly challenging”, as it often involved having to get a visa, with processing times and costs varying across the 27 member states.

Lord Kinnoull, who chairs the committee, said there was now an opportunity to move the UK-EU political relationship “forward”, following the recent agreement of the Windsor Framework on trade in Northern Ireland. The report said these political relations had previously been “characterised by tension and mistrust” in recent years.

“A particular theme running through our Future UK-EU Relationship report evidence was the significant impact of post-Brexit barriers to mobility for young workers and professionals in the early stages of their careers, emerging artists, as well as students across different educational levels,” he added.

“Making progress here will benefit all in the short term but especially in the long term.”