What will the EU’s new entry-exit system mean for British travellers?
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Under the entry-exit system, British travellers to the Schengen Area can expect to be fingerprinted and provide a facial biometric. Plans to take fingerprints and facial biometrics from British travellers to Europe have been postponed yet again. In August, the European Union vowed that the long-awaited “entry-exit system” (EES) would go ahead on 10 November 2024. The plan was that every frontier in Schengen Area (comprising all EU nations except Cyprus and Ireland, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) would stop “wet-stamping” passports and instead record entries and exits on a central database together with biometric information.
But exactly a month before EES was due to be launched, the EU quietly revealed it has been postponed indefinitely by the European Commission. In addition, the system appears to have been watered down, with the Commission saying the plan is now to “scan the fingerprints or take a photo of those crossing the border for the first time”.
The key word in that phrase is or rather than and. Previously the plan was to demand both fingerprints and facial biometrics from every traveller from the same day, in a “big-bang” approach. The report indicates that some kind of pilot programme will be launched first, and demands for biometrics could be deferred still further.
