Jersey and Guernsey, two British 'crown dependencies' close off the coast of France may lose the ferry service that brings lucrative tourism to their shores from their near neighbor, with Brexit shouldering the blame.
French authorities, who subsidize the ferry link say that they can't handle a deficit for the service, even though they don't expect to make profits either. At the present level of business, they say, each €30 ticket incurs expenses of €200. They are threatening to end the subsidy when the current contract expires later this year.
Since the UK left the EU, visitors from France need passports to visit the islands, and since about half of French people don't have passports because they're not needed for travel in the EU or Schengen zones, traffic on the ferry links has dropped sharply since service restarted after a pandemic shutdown.
Authorities on the islands are concerned about the issue, as are French officials. Jean Morin, president of the local authorities in the Manche département of France has asked that passport requirements be lifted, with hopes of increasing travel to and from the islands.
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