The major new EU red tape to be imposed on British travellers this year after lengthy delays
Share:
Exclusive: The Independent believes nothing will change until late autumn 2025 at the earliest. Many travellers are asking: what new red tape is the EU imposing this year for British travellers?. The European Union has long promised that its transformational “entry-exit system” (EES) is shortly to start. After that, the next step in tighter border controls is due to be “Etias”: the Electronic Travel Information and Authorisation System.
But after a number of conflicting announcements by Brussels about the European plans, there is understandable confusion about what exactly is planned, and when. These are the answers you need. “An automated IT system for registering non-EU nationals who are travelling to the EU for a short stay,” says the European Commission.
Many countries are digitising their borders. Instead of relying on “wet-stamping” passports and form-filling on paper, they create a central database which interacts with frontier posts – whether at airports, seaports, railway stations or road crossings. Europe is doing this on a grand scale, with the entire Schengen Area. That means all the European Union nations except Cyprus and Ireland, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
The entry-exit system aims to capture personal data from all “third-country nationals” when they either enter or leave at an external Schengen border – such as flying from Scotland to Spain, taking the Channel Tunnel from England to France or crossing by road from Greece to Turkey.
