EU’s EES launched with slowdowns and rule violations

Two minutes and 26 seconds — this was the time it took English travel journalist Simon Calder to register for the Entry-Exit System (EES) at the Prague Airport the day that Europe’s new border scheme was finally introduced after years of postponements.

The biometric border registration scheme was officially launched last Sunday with little fanfare.

On Tuesday, Calder spoke about the first days of the EES’ operation in front of a UK parliamentary committee alongside a Eurostar rail service executive and a cyber policy expert from Luxembourg. The testimony showed that the system is already struggling with slowdowns and infractions.

“There’s a lot of friction,” the journalist told the Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

Calder spent the bulk of the two and a half minutes at Prague’s EES registration machines answering questions and submitting fingerprints from both hands, even though regulations stipulate that travelers must submit only four fingerprints from the right hand and a facial image.

The rules are being violated already in the first days of the system’s regulation, points out Niovi Vavoula, associate professor and chair in Cyber Policy at the University of Luxembourg.

“The EES regulation is adamant and very explicitly states that the official limits of four fingertips must be recorded in the EES,” says Vavoula. “This creates legal certainty and also a level playing field across the participating countries.”

On October 12th, Estonia, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic were the only three countries that decided to apply the system to all non-EU travelers from day one, while other countries opted for a gradual introduction over the next six months. In most countries, the EES will first be introduced to airports.

According to EES rules, non-EU travelers entering the 29 Schengen area countries have to submit biographical data, fingerprints and a facial image. The countries in the Schengen area are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Vavoula, however, says that videos have been popping up of travelers showing that the EES process is not going so smoothly, with registration times of up to four minutes in Estonia.

“Even in countries like Estonia, which are supposed to be fully operational, the kiosks are not operating at all, and any registration of fingerprints and facial images is taking place manually, which has significantly increased the timing,” she says.

Despite these initial hurdles, the progressive rollout of the EES has reduced the risks of long queues that could have come with a “big bang” approach of introducing the system all at once, according to Simon Lejeune, Eurostar’s chief officer for Safety and Stations and Security.

European authorities reached a decision to allow a gradual introduction of the EES after yet another failed attempt to introduce the system simultaneously in 2024. The deadline for the introduction is April 10th, 2026.

Lejeune also testified that the international railway did not increase their ticket prices despite investments into new EES infrastructure. Eurostar has increased its EES kiosks at St Pancras station, which connects London with Belgium, France and the Netherlands, partly with funding from the UK government. The French government has also provided investment, he adds.

The next big question is when will travelers be able to use the EES pre-registration app to complete the process online and why isn’t it now?

The biometric-based Travel to Europe app developed by Inverid and iProov for Frontex is ready to speed up border crossings, but it needs to be integrated into the various national solutions for EES, experts told the parliamentary committee.

Sweden has already announced it would use the app at selected border points, while Frontex is also planning a pilot program at major entry points in the Netherlands, France and Italy in 2026. Portugal, Hungary, Greece and other EU member states have also expressed interest in the app, according to Vavoula.

The cyber policy professor believes that many countries want to see how the phased approach to EES will take place before working on the app.

“There is further information in non-public EU documents, and that’s a problem with transparency, because we cannot find much information,” Vavoula says.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometrics  |  Entry/Exit System (EES)  |  Europe  |  face biometrics  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  identity verification  |  Travel to Europe