EU biometric Entry/Exit System launch date confirmed for November 10

With the new Entry/Exit System (EES) formally scheduled to launch on November 10, 2024, Europe will deploy the “most modern digital border management system in the world,” according to European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson.

“Carriers, operators, train stations, airports – everyone is getting ready for the big day,” says Johannsen, in comments from a speech given in Estonia to the the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), which built and will maintain the EES IT infrastructure.

On launch, the EES will replace stamps in physical passports by digitally registering the data of non-EU citizens whenever they enter and exit external Schengen borders, to ensure they don’t stay in the Schengen area for more than 90 days in any 180-day period. Travelers will be required to submit fingerprint and face biometrics on their first crossing; subsequent EES crossings will only require a passport scan at a self-serve kiosk to match the ID document against enrolled biometric data.

“We will know exactly who enters the Schengen Area with a foreign passport,” says Johannson. “We will know if people stay too long, countering irregular migration. And the Entry/Exit System will make it harder for criminals, terrorists or Russian spies to use fake passports, thanks to biometric identification: photos and fingerprints. There’ll be an immediate warning: this person is not who he says he is.”

The speech also notes the forthcoming launch of the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which is set to go live in 2025. It will require visitors from 60 visa free countries to apply for authorization ahead of travel to 29 European nations, and to pay a fee of seven Euros.

Johannson says the process of getting EES ready for launch has been “a marathon,” and she is not wrong: the biometric border system’s original launch target was 2021. “But the finishing line is in sight. Now we’re getting ready for the final sprint: the tenth of November. That will be a great day.”

Delayed to accommodate the Olympics, and due to some technical and logistical issues, EES’s arrival will not make everyone as jubilant as Johannson. Many have expressed concern that biometric identity checks will lead to long queues at borders, notably for travel between England and France, which sees some 11 million people cross every year.

Former head of the British Border Force, Tony Smith, says the EU should allow travelers to perform biometric fingerprint scans in advance through an app, to avoid “chaos” at busy border checkpoints.  Current estimates put the time required to do biometric border checks at around seven minutes per car – much too long, says Smith, for crossings at the Eurotunnel or Port Dover.

Others have floated the idea of a postponement or soft rollout.

There are also lingering doubts that EES will actually be ready to roll out on November 10. Despite Johannson’s optimism, the Commission has already added a “last resort” back up date of November 17, 2024, in case border checkpoints aren’t quite in the blocks yet on the 10th.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  digital ID  |  digital travel authorization  |  Entry/Exit System (EES)  |  ETIAS  |  eu-LISA  |  Europe