EU systems on time and on track as usual

[Suff]

So there was this big furore about their ETIAS system and how they were going to charge us €3 a year for access to the eu.

It was supposed to go into effect in Q1 this year. Now given I'm heading back in just over a week I thought I'd go and see what I had to do.

On the site.

ETIAS will start operations in the last quarter of 2026.
No action is required from travellers at this point.
The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch.

[Workingman]

So, due to the delay you could save €6 yet still you still need to have a pop at the EU.

For those of us from the UK ETIAS (almost) brings back a form FOM (lite) something we signed away due to Brexit.

Mind you I suppose that we could have a system where once we cross the Channel we would need a separate visa for every EU country we wanted to visit or traverse. That would teach Jonny Forriner.

[Suff]

I never had an issue with the €3. I had an issue with the people screaming it was the end of the world and that it WAS ALL OUR FAULT.

Now I'm taking the piss because this lot could not find a brewery to organise a piss up in.

Now they are talking about coordinating defence manufacturing..... In my book that means we'll allow you to run a 7% deficit as long as you buy the stuff from Germany or France.

The number of times this all happens it is kind of amusing. It is very like watching the USSR from a distance as they failed to feed themselves with prime cropland capable of producing 25% of the worlds grain.

So yes I'm mr sarcastic because they are so damned useless at everything they put the EU name on. I'd like them to be more efficient but it is a waste of time even hoping.

It is like the EU mandate allowing all UK citizens the right to residence in the EU. They overrode every system and forced every country to put in place a simple system, no checks apart from basic, fill the forms out and done.

Great. So France is now looking at renewals. Some got 5 years some got 10. But reality is this. If you want to renew your 5 year residency you are going to have to sit a test. If you want to renew your 10 year when it comes up, ditto. If you want citizenship from your 5 or 10 year residency? Test.

Now Mrs S can pass the test no issue, aural, verbal, written, history, knows everything needed already. How many of those who live around us in the "English Ghetto" as our French friends call it? Very, very few. So the EU made a commitment but didn't have the nous to realise how to follow through with it. Which is going to hurt a really large number of people.

The UK, of course, will comply with the letter of the law and the spirit of the agreement.

So do allow me to take the piss from time to time. They bring it on themselves.