{"id":141363,"date":"2025-05-29T12:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141363\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:17:09","slug":"brit-tourists-still-not-allowed-to-use-e-gates-in-europe-this-summer-despite-brexit-deal-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141363\/","title":{"rendered":"Brit tourists still not allowed to use e-gates in Europe this summer despite Brexit deal | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s hopes of millions of Britons avoiding lengthy queues at EU airports this summer have been thrown into doubt. Confirming he wants closer ties with Brussels<\/a>, the Prime Minister revealed families could soon use EU e-gates.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir added that there is \u201cno inhibition now on this, so I want to see it done<\/a> quickly\u201d. But the document signed by London and Brussels<\/a> says both the UK and the EU agree there will be \u201cno legal barriers to e-gate use for British nationals travelling to and from EU states after the introduction of the EU EES\u201d, The Times reported. The EU Entry\/Exit Scheme (EES) is not due to come into force until October at the earliest.<\/p>\n

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister responsible for Labour\u2019s EU reset, has written to Greece, Germany and the Netherlands urging them to allow immediate access amid fears families will still face lengthy queues this summer.<\/p>\n

EES will be an automated IT system for registering travellers from non-EU countries, including the UK, each time they cross a border into or out of the EU.<\/p>\n

When it comes into force in October, travellers will need to scan their passports at an automated self-service kiosk prior to crossing the border.<\/p>\n

This will replace the current manual stamping of passports for visitors to Europe\u2019s borderless Schengen area who are not nationals of EU or Schengen<\/a> countries.<\/p>\n

The system will register the person’s name, type of travel document, biometric data (such as fingerprints) and the date and place of entry and exit.<\/p>\n

It is likely that British travellers will have their fingerprints and facial images taken the first time they cross a border into the EU, once the new system is in operation.<\/p>\n

There are fears this will cause huge queues at EU airports.<\/p>\n

A European Commission spokesman said the introduction of EES \u201cwill open the possibility to use e-gates for all non-EU citizens. This will contribute to \u00adfluidity at borders for entry and exit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Luke Petherbridge, the director of public affairs at Abta, the travel association, said: \u201cWe believe there are three different scenarios of how EU countries allow UK citizens to use e-gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first being no access at all, the second being occasional access might be granted at the border official\u2019s discretion and the third will be some who allow it all of the time. In terms of the second and third scenario, you\u2019ll still need to have your passport stamped as that\u2019s what monitors how long you\u2019ve been in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

A European Commission spokesman said the introduction of EES \u201cwill open the possibility to use e-gates for all non-EU citizens. This will contribute to \u00adfluidity at borders for entry and exit\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s hopes of millions of Britons avoiding lengthy queues at EU airports this summer have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[61208,4328,802,5322,748,61207,2000,61206,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-141363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-airport-queues","9":"tag-airports","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-brexit-news","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-e-gates","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-eu-ees-scheme","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-european","18":"tag-european-union","19":"tag-great-britain","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114591081778642686","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141363","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=141363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}