What will change with the introduction of the new EU Entry/Exit border system?

The EU’s long-awaited Entry/Exit System (EES) will launch on Sunday October 12 after multiple delays.

It replaces passport stamps with fingerprints and face photos thanks to a series of scanners installed at airports, ports and railway stations across Europe.

The aim is to record all entries and exits of non-EU nationals travelling for a short-stay (90 days within any 180-day period), allowing authorities to track overstays and refusals of entry automatically.

“It will help the border guards verify that the person holding the passport is who he says he is and that his passport is real, not fraudulent,” said Assita Kanko, a European Conservatives and Reformists MEP who served as the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the EES.

What will happen on October 12?

Non-European travellers arriving in all EU countries, with the exception of Cyprus and Ireland, who are both not in the Schengen zone, will be asked to provide their passport, fingerprints and photographs at border checkpoints.

This information will also be required upon arrival in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland and will be stored for three years in most cases.

It will be collected the first time travelling at a border crossing point after the introduction of the EES. For future trips passport control officers will only verify travellers’ fingerprints and photo, which, according to the EU, will take less time.

The new system will be phased in over a six month period until April 10, 2026. 

The largest European countries, such as France and Germany, will only carry out a handful of checks initially in order to avoid huge queues at airports.

Some smaller countries, like Estonia and Luxembourg, will fully implement the system from the get go.

Others will have a more mixed approach. In Croatia, from October 12 until the end of the month, the biometric data will be collected for four hours a day, in November for eight hours, and from December for 12 hours a day.

Slovenia will, according to its police, gradually introduce the EES at border crossing points on its external Schengen border, i.e. at three border crossing points for international air traffic (Ljubljana-Brnik, Maribor-Slivnica, and Portorož) and at two border crossing points for international maritime traffic (Koper and Piran).

For some Europeans from countries outside of the EU or Schengen area, they will have to prepare to comply. EU membership candidate North Macedonia’s Interior Ministry urged all of its citizens who plan to travel to the Schengen area to familiarise themselves with the new rules and procedures, in order to ensure their trips are timely, safe, and free of unnecessary delays.

The Ministry stressed that all data will be processed and stored in accordance with the strict standards of the European Union and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This ensures full protection of privacy and transparent use of the collected data.

Albania’s Deputy Prime Minister, Belinda Balluku, also warned travellers to be aware of the new rules.

Will there be delays?

There are concerns that the collection of this new data could cause long queues in airports and train stations next week.

“As always, when important new IT systems are introduced, there can be some hiccups. But that is why the system will start in a low season for international travel. Furthermore, the gradual rollout was agreed precisely to avoid major issues,” said Kanko.

“Authorities and travellers at border crossing points will be able to get used to the system step by step. And in case of unforeseen problems or excessive waiting times, local border guards can temporarily suspend the use of the system in order to manage,” she added.

The French Home Office struck a hopeful tone, saying it expects “the situation to be normal, with no congestion problems” on October 12.

However, it added that implementing this system in full remains a ‘major challenge’ for France, which is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, recording 100 million foreign visitors in 2024.

British travellers will be some of the most affected given their strong transport links to the EU, but some of its operators are confident things will run smoothly.

“Everything is ready, everything is prepared and everything has been tested already with hundreds of customers,” Yann Leriche, chief executive of Channel Tunnel operator Getlink, told AFP in September. 

Getlink said it had spent 80 million Euro on its new systems installed in the UK and France.

What are the benefits to Europeans?

The new rules come into effect almost ten years since they were first proposed by the European Commission.

The Commission said they will help “to prevent irregular migration and help protect the security of everyone living in or travelling to Europe”.

The French Ministry of the Interior states that the system will also enable it to identify visa ‘misuse’ – if a person entered with a tourist visa that was later converted into a private and family visa – and to know whether a person who has been denied asylum has left the Schengen area.

“It will make sure that people entering the Schengen area have valid identity documents,” said Kanko. “All people of goodwill travelling to the EU can keep coming without worrying about anything.”

The full implementation of the EES is a prerequisite for the start of the introduction of another rule for third-country nationals when entering the EU. This is the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which is expected to be put in place next year.

ETIAS is an electronic travel authorisation for the Schengen area, similar to the American ESTA system. Third-country nationals will have to fill out an online form before traveling to the EU, pay a fee of 20 Euro and wait for approval.

Passengers without a valid ETIAS permit may be prevented from boarding a flight or denied entry to the Schengen area.

This article is an enr Key Story. The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr.