Travel industry struggles with lack of clarity on EES

The travel industry continues to struggle with the lack of certainty after the delay of the EU’s Exit-Entry System (EES) earlier this month. Stakeholders are asking for guidelines from the European Commission to prepare for deployment, including a framework that would detail the phased rollout of the EES.

Support and communication between the UK Home Office and the French Interior Ministry have been good, according to Gareth Williams, general secretary of international rail service Eurostar. But the communication between governments and the EU, including its main IT agency EU-Lisa, has been “challenging,” he adds.

“If they do not have certainty themselves and do not have a decision to work with, there is nothing they can communicate,” says Williams, according to Connexion France.

The postponement of the European border scheme, which was scheduled to roll out on November 10th, came after several EU countries told the European Commission they would not be ready for the implementation. One of the main arguments for the delay was the lack of stability and functionality of the EES central computer system, which is overseen by EU-LISA.

“What lies behind the latest delay is the weakness of the test environment with the EU systems, which did not give the member states the kind of confidence, which we all know is necessary, that the systems will communicate properly and will be robust and reliable,” says Williams.

The best approach for the EES is a phased implementation that would take into account potential disruptions during peak travel times such as summer, he noted. According to his plan, the EES would start by enrolling 5 to 10 percent of travelers, allowing time to refine the system and procedures.

John Keefe, chief corporate and public affairs officer at Getlink Group, believes that the EU will avoid a simultaneous launch at all entry points. Instead, the EES may be first rolled out at smaller ports of entry while biometric data capture may be limited to faces in the beginning,  trade publication Travel News reports. Getlink is the operator of Eurotunnel.

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson has held a meeting with EU-Lisa to discuss ways forward, including whether it would be legally possible to introduce the EES to some border points and not to others.

The Commission has also altered the wording of its EES instructions, allowing border authorities to choose between scanning a fingerprint or taking a photo of the passenger crossing the border, according to reports.

Both Getlink, which operates the Eurotunnel, and Eurostar have stated that they would have been ready for the November rollout of the EES. But for most border crossings, the postponement caused a collective sigh of relief.

Council of the UK’s Port of Dover welcomed the delay, adding that “complete and utter carnage” would have occurred if the system had been introduced as planned. Across the Channel in France, ferry port operator Ports de Normandie said that it would not be “technically possible” to apply the system’s rules in many places.

The EES will require non-EU citizens to submit fingerprint and face biometrics on their first crossing of Schengen borders and scan their passports at self-serve kiosks during future crossings. The introduction of EES will be followed by the arrival of another travel scheme called the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS).

Article Topics

biometrics  |  border security  |  digital identity  |  Entry/Exit System (EES)  |  EU  |  Eurotunnel  |  Getlink  |  UK