From March 5, Italians, Sanmarinese citizens and other European citizens can request the new Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) which will become an indispensable requirement to go to the United Kingdom from next April 2. It will be associated with, just a passport, it will be valid for two years and an initial cost of 10 pounds (about 12 euros), but in the future it will rise to 16. It is not a visa, as they explain to the British embassy in Italy, but a travel permit in digital format “in line with the approach adopted by many other countries for the safety of borders, including the United States and Australia and has the aim of preventing the arrival of subjects threat to the United Kingdom “. The request should (the conditional is a must, we will see in a couple of weeks the feedback of the first users) be quite simple. Applications can be submitted by downloading the application from Google Play or Apple App Store or you can apply for the Gov.uk website (Apply online). Always the embassy ensures that, with the application, most applicants will get an automatic response in a few minutes and therefore it will still be possible to organize trips with little notice. At the moment, temporary exemption from the obligation to request for those who transit only, in the United Kingdom is expected. Instead, there is still no mutual practice from European states towards British citizens who go there. And while the English government on the one hand puts a further stake at the entrance to the country, on the other it begins to consider the hypothesis of a youth mobility plan to be presented in Brussels. Excluding up to this moment, since erroneously mistaken for a return to the free movement of people and therefore equated to a betrayal of Brexit, Keir Starmer’s executive now seems ready to break the stall phase and take a step forward waiting for the meeting with European negotiators, scheduled for London on May 19th. Based on the plan designed by the British, tens of thousands of young people under 30 should be able to come and live, working or studying, in the kingdom for two years, with the possibility of extending this period for a further year. According to indiscretions collected by the media, the proposal for now has not received the enthusiasm of Brussels, but until May there is time to improve it. And above all, it is in the interest of Starmer to return to Europe in the post Brexit era, albeit from the service door….
