180/360 Visa-free

October 2020 Update

Background

The concept of 180/360 visa-free travel was the prime driver for the 180 days visa free campaign. Our original proposal was publised in April 2020 (as set out below).

The Schengen 90/180 rule, when conceived, applied to far fewer countries than the 26 countries it applies to in 2020.

In October 2020 we learned that the EU had long recognised that the Schengen 90/180 rule was causing over-restrictive limitations on those who travel in multi-countries. The key EU document is here.

Our response

The 180days team prepared a short paper that proposed that

• the 90/180 limit is expanded to a cumulative total of 180 days in any rolling 360 days with the creation of a 180/360 day rule

• other parts of the Schengen agreement remain largely unchanged.

The paper may be accessed here.

The paper was sent to Michel Barnier, President Van der Leyen, Guy Verhofstadt MEP and the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli MEP on October 18. We await their response but recognise that they are curently dealing with other pressing matters.

The Original Proposal

Allow 180 days of visa-free tourist travel by UK citizens to the EU and EU citizens to the UK.

This could be achieved by

• the EU extending the Schengen 90/180 logic to include 180/360 for UK Nationals; and

• the UK offering the same terms for tourist travel as they currently grant to citizens of a wide range of countries such as Brazil, Japan and the US

This

• is consistent with the publicly stated desire of the UK and the EU to agree reciprocal arrangements that reflect their long standing relationship

• will appear reasonable to UK citizens, EU citizens and those who currently already enjoy 180 days of visa-free tourist travel to the UK

• builds on rules already in place

For the UK

• it meets the needs of 500,000 voters who own a second home in Europe

• there would be no special rules for EU citizens, they would be the same as, for example, US citizens. This would reduce the resources required for implementation

• UK government red lines are not transgressed

• this simply extends a working period used in Schengen from 90 to 180 days. It does not give away any control

• it recognises the depth of the UK-EU relationship without impeding the UK’s ability to make sovereign choices

• the problems of managing overstay for 180 days will be the same as they are for 90 days

For the EU

• the benefits arising from the annual influx of UK citizens to rural areas will continue to flow

• EU citizens travelling to the UK for the purposes of tourism will enjoy the same rights as enjoyed by many other citizens of the world so they will not feel discriminated against

• Countries such as France, Italy, Portugal and Spain will not need to prepare for a significant increase in the number of visa applications at peak periods

We recognise that treating UK citizens differently to “Third Country Nationals” will make the implementation of rules for UK citizens a little more difficult however, the long term benefit will outweigh the short-term costs.

This proposal is also available in text format in Google Docs

• [link]