{"id":1074687,"date":"2026-07-07T19:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1074687\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T19:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:07:12","slug":"brussels-just-dodged-a-brexit-fuelled-airport-meltdown-with-its-biometrics-u-turn-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1074687\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels just dodged a Brexit\u2011fuelled airport meltdown with its biometrics U\u2011turn \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holidaymakers\u00a0can\u00a0breathe a sigh of relief\u00a0after\u00a0the EU\u00a0hit\u00a0the pause button on\u00a0its new Entry\/Exit System<\/a> (EES) that swaps passports with biometrics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there are situations of exceptionally high pressure on a certain border crossing point, there is the possibility to\u00a0suspend temporarily\u00a0the registration of the biometrics,\u201d EU commission spokesperson Markus Lammert told reporters on Monday (6 July).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of manual passport stamps at immigration,\u00a0travellers\u00a0are now to be directed to an immigration booth or a kiosk at the border entry point, where their passport details and biometric data such as a facial image and fingerprints, will be recorded, though children under 12 will not have to provide fingerprints. <\/p>\n

The commission says that the EES will reduce the average time spent at passport control from\u00a090 seconds\u00a0to 20 seconds per person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new system is supposed to make it easier to\u00a0identify\u00a0non-EU\u00a0travellers\u00a0who have entered the EU legally but then overstayed their short-stay visa or\u00a0sought\u00a0to work in the EU.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The EES applies to all countries outside the Schengen area but one of its main targets will be British tourists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Britons about to head for the Med at the start of the school holidays later this month, the EES was already being portrayed in the media looking for easy summer headlines as the latest punishment for Brexit, with gruesome warnings of\u00a0five-hour\u00a0queues and of planes taking off without most of their passengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Faced with the prospect of\u00a0such\u00a0lurid headlines, the commission made the smart choice\u00a0by allowing national governments not to collect\u00a0biometric\u00a0data. They have also said that the\u00a0bloc\u2019s\u00a0border agency Frontex will be on hand to support overstretched border points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Repeated delays<\/p>\n

Like the UK\u2019s\u00a0own border changes\u00a0to introduce inspections on goods and produce arriving from the EU, the EES has been repeatedly delayed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The system was originally supposed to go live in 2020, the same year that the UK formally left the EU.\u00a0But\u00a0EU home affairs ministers got cold\u00a0feet\u00a0and the new system only came into operation last October.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

There have also been concerns about the EU\u2019s mixed\u00a0track record\u00a0of\u00a0setting up new\u00a0IT\u00a0systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, French IT firm Atos, along with partners IBM and Leonardo, won a \u20ac142m\u00a0contract to build the data system for EES \u2013 just as its chief executive Thierry Breton was being appointed as the EU\u2019s internal market commissioner – though the contract\u2019s value has since swelled to \u20ac212m. <\/p>\n

And last year the European Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office launched an investigation after leaked documents\u00a0indicated\u00a0that Atos\u2019s Moscow office had\u00a0been responsible for\u00a0purchasing\u00a0the software.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The commission says that many of the delays would have been caused by pre-existing staffing shortages, infrastructure constraints, and limited space, rather than the EES itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0not how the aviation industry sees it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an open letter on 1 July, Europe’s airports, airlines and aviation bodies urged the European Commission to suspend the EES during peak periods \u2013 i.e. the upcoming summer holidays – warning that otherwise border delays of up to five hours would mean half-empty flights and ruined holidays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The implementation of EES had reached a “critical point…putting border authorities, airports and airlines under unsustainable pressure,\u201d they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For his part, the\u00a0ever-voluble\u00a0Ryanair boss Michael O\u2019Leary has described<\/a> the EES as \u201cpartly punishment for Brexit, partly bureaucratic stupidity, which is what Europe excels at\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0an unnecessary shitshow.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0like French border control at Dover.\u00a0But ultimately, it\u2019s\u00a0what your mob voted for, so suck it up,\u201d he added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

EES will\u00a0probably end\u00a0up being faster and smoother\u00a0than the passport queues.\u00a0In truth,\u00a0bottlenecks\u00a0and long queues for non-EU\u00a0travellers\u00a0at some European airports have already been a reality since Brexit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the brave new biometric world is likely to experience some teething problems \u2013 and the summer holidays are not the best time for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holidaymakers\u00a0can\u00a0breathe a sigh of relief\u00a0after\u00a0the EU\u00a0hit\u00a0the pause button on\u00a0its new Entry\/Exit System (EES) that swaps passports with biometrics.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1074688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5226],"tags":[217083,802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,225611,225602,271776,245341,294461,225600,245339,225609,294459,271774,225601,245340,225610,294460,271775,16,15],"class_list":["post-1074687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brexit","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-great-britain","tag-identifier4403","tag-identifier4437","tag-identifier4551","tag-identifier4599","tag-identifier4652","tag-namebrexit","tag-nameeuobserver-voice","tag-namesociety","tag-nametransport","tag-nameuk","tag-termcodebrexit","tag-termcodeeuobserver-voice","tag-termcodesociety","tag-termcodetransport","tag-termcodeuk","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116880267678783307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1074687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1074687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1074687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1074687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1074687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}