Graham McDougall writes for the University of Sussex’s The Badger on why his local Co-Operative shop is inadvertantly treating foreign students unfairly:

Valentine Kalbov is an 18-year-old Music Informatics student from Bulgaria. Valentine is free to enjoy almost all social and academic experiences that the University of Sussex has to offer, except one. As an EU citizen in possession of a Bulgarian ID, Valentine is free to travel to any country in the EU without a passport as long as he produces his home country’s ID at foreign borders. However, there is one place in the EU where Valentine’s ID is not accepted and it’s surprisingly close to his (and my) halls of residence.

Following the recent scandal regarding the hike in fees for International students, I was made aware of yet another issue affecting non-UK students at Sussex. And this time it amounts to nothing less than pure discrimination and a violation of article 21.2 (‘non-discrimination’) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

If Valentine wants to purchase alcohol or tobacco products in the campus Co-op, they are required to present a valid piece of identification to prove that they over the age of 18. I myself use my passport, others a driving licence: these are the only pieces of ID which the Co-op will accept as proof of age. I and many others have also signed up for the Thumb ID scheme which allows customers to simply place their thumb on a reader to prove their age. The scheme, however, only accepts people registering with one of these two forms of ID.

Full story here.