Tag: Xavier Bertrand

Dover and Calais are facing “economic catastrophe” because of Brexit, and both the UK and the EU are allowing the two ports to drift towards disaster, a leading French politician has said. Bertrand believes this does not go far enough and that talks need to swiftly move to local planning or time will have run out for practical contingencies including border inspection posts and customs clearance checks. Even at the moment you see queues of 1km to the tunnel – and that is where there are no checks. “The French and British governments have to talk to each other to find a solution, otherwise we are heading for something catastrophic. Both governments need to talk to each other to find solutions.” Bertrand has now made five trips to Britain to try to impress upon politicians and officials the need to swing contingency plans into action. “I am going to one more time try to increase the pressure and warn people about the dangers: what about the catastrophe?” he said, but time was running out. In the absence of advanced planning on the British side, he revealed that Calais was prepared to solve the problem of space for checks in Dover. Bertrand said he used to be optimistic that a solution for Dover-Calais would be found, but he now despaired as he could see that Brexiters thought no deal was “still a way”. I’m going to call on the French government and the French president to make the voice of common sense heard.” Calais after Brexit 'could be 10 times worse than Irish border' Read more He is concerned that his own efforts at contingency planning will hit the buffers because there is no cross-border communication at a political level. In March, Bertrand and the boss of the port of Calais said the Channel would be 10 times worse than the Irish border.