This is a particularly piquant question for the recreational boater, who might head out of, say, Cherbourg with every intention of taking advantage of a westerly breeze to take him to Brighton, after informing the relevant authorities, he may then find the wind has switched, making, perhaps Fowey a better bet. That’s the beauty of cruising: freedom, but it presents a considerable obstacle to the Government’s apparent wish to monitor and analyse all cross border movements.

EU Concerns

At the end of last year, the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report of its investigation into the e-Borders programme concluded that: ‘The e-Borders programme is therefore, as far as we can ascertain, likely to be illegal under the EU Treaty’. This related to laws regarding freedom of movement throughout the EU, which makes sense when you bear in mind that at present EU members don’t have to show a passport when crossing borders.

However, it transpires that the Government has in the mean time been negotiating with the European Commission and it emerged in December that the Government has provided a series of assurances to the European Union in an effort to ensure that the e-Borders programme will be consistent with EU law.

The European Commission has indicated that, in light of the clarifications, commitments and assurances given by the UK Government, it appears that the e-Borders programme would not be in breach of EU Directives relating to data protection and the freedom of movement of EU citizens.

Importantly, the UK Government has assured the EU that travellers who have not provided the UK authorities with relevant personal information will not be denied the right to travel, thereby ensuring that the whole scheme does not fall foul of EU rules on the free movement of people within the EU.

Major concession

Gus Lewis, Head of Government Affairs “It seems that, in satisfying the European Commission’s concerns over the free movement of EU citizens, the UK Government has had to make significant concessions that may undermine its aspiration to collect and analyse information on everyone who travels to or from the United Kingdom.”

“However, the Government has still not published a comprehensive explanation of how the e-Borders scheme will in practice be rolled out in the recreational boating sector so it is not clear how the recent correspondence between the UK Government and the EU will affect the implementation of the e-Borders programme for recreational boaters.”

RYA Stance

At the same time as challenging the methodology of the e-Borders programme at a political level, the RYA has been meeting regularly with the UK Border Agency to ensure that they understand the complexities when it comes to recreational boaters.

However, although the technology platform is intended to be launched in 2011, the scheme is not expected to be fully implemented in the recreational sector until 2014 and the UKBA is at present heavily occupied with implementing the scheme in the commercial sector.

Gus explains: “The UK Government’s correspondence with the European Commission raises a number of questions as to how the e-Borders programme might be implemented in practice.

“For example, the assurances given by the Government refer to ‘carriers’ and ‘passengers’, clearly with commercial carriers in mind, and it is still not clear how the UK Government proposes to relate these definitions to owners, charterers, skippers or crew in the recreational sector.”

With this in mind, the RYA will maintain a dialogue with the e-Borders team to ensure that the interests of recreational boaters are not compromised.

Article written by the RYA.