{"id":19073,"date":"2026-06-04T13:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/19073\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:00:13","slug":"brussels-sends-agents-e8-million-to-support-portugals-border-control-system-portugal-resident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/19073\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels sends agents, \u20ac8 million, to support Portugal\u2019s \u2018border control system\u2019 \u2013 Portugal Resident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels has finally seen the light. After claiming that months of \u2018chaos\u2019 at airport border controls were \u2018unrelated\u2019 to its new Entry\/ Exit system (EES)<\/a>, the European Commission has announced that it has deployed 25 Frontex agents (plus document experts), and allocated approximately \u20ac8 million in funding, to support Portugal\u2019s own \u2018border management efforts\u2019.<\/p>\n

Magnus Brunner, the commissioner for Internal Affairs, told Lusa reporters in Luxembourg this morning, that \u201cPortugal is doing everything to ensure the system works (\u2026) It has increased staff, reinforced teams, improved IT systems, and invested in their development, and we are here to provide support. We have Frontex agents and Frontex experts on the ground supporting Portugal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frontex is the European Union agency responsible for managing the external borders of the Schengen Area.<\/p>\n

According to Brunner, Frontex document experts have been drafted in to \u201cassist Portuguese authorities in enforcing the rules\u201d.<\/p>\n

Late last week, it was announced that Portugal had invoked the legal mechanism with European institutions that allows for the suspension of biometric data collection at airports for up to six hours in situations of significant delays at border controls\u2014a measure permitted until September due to the adaptation period for EES, a system established under the European migration pact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created this measure specifically for countries under greater pressure during the tourist season, such as Portugal. Until September, it is possible to temporarily suspend the system\u2019s application for six hours a day\u2014that is provided for in the rules (\u2026) After that, naturally, we must be prepared,\u201d said Brunner.<\/p>\n

Since October last year, when the EES system \u2018came into effect\u2019 (albeit, often, dramatically), nearly 90 million entries and exits have been recorded, along with more than 40,000 refusals of entry (due to false or fraudulent documents) \u2013 of which more than 800 people were identified as posing a threat to EU security, Lusa adds.<\/p>\n

The EES is a digital system for electronically recording the entry and exit of third-country nationals into the Schengen area, replacing manual stamps with biometric and digital records.<\/p>\n

Reacting to today\u2019s \u2018news\u2019, Minister for Internal Administration, Lu\u00eds Neves, says he is optimistic that the summer will progress without the chaos that has characterised the last few months at Portugal\u2019s airports \u2013 principally those of Lisbon and Faro.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will always be technological problems\u201d, but hopefully no further \u2018chaos\u2019. \u201cWe are much more confident, and optimistic, than we were in the recent past,\u201d he conceded.<\/p>\n

Source material: Lusa\/ Observador<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brussels has finally seen the light. After claiming that months of \u2018chaos\u2019 at airport border controls were \u2018unrelated\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[2971,18,277,52],"class_list":["post-19073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-airports","tag-brussels","tag-european-commission","tag-tourism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116691968138484905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}