eu-Lisa positive about EES despite three countries lagging behind deployment

Eu-Lisa has laid out its plans for 2026, promising to ensure the uninterrupted availability of the EU’s biometric border scheme, the Entry-Exit System (EES).​

The European agency in charge of managing large-scale IT systems published its outlook for the current year on Thursday, remaining positive in EES progress despite growing concern among EU countries and the travel industry that its rollout will cause chaos during the summer months.

“The system is now in a normal, technically speaking, operational mode and fully stabilised,” Tillmann Keber, executive director of Eu-Lisa, said last week.

And while Eu-Lisa says that operations are stable on their side, statements from other EU officials, however, show that the implementation of the EES by individual states is not going so smoothly.

Three countries not meeting EES obligations

Last week, the European Commission revealed that three unnamed countries are currently not meeting their obligation to register 35 percent of all third-country nationals entering the Schengen zone due to “technical issues at national level.”

The news comes as European states prepare to enter the next stage of the EES’ phased six-month introduction, which requires border authorities to register 50 percent of such travelers by March 10th. By April 10th, all participating countries are expected to finish the EES rollout, registering 100 percent of third-country nationals by obtaining their finger and facial biometrics scans.

Another issue has been long waiting times at border crossings, especially during peak travel seasons. Some border authorities have been struggling to register visitor biometrics due to equipment that is not up to standard or not working properly, Henrik Nielsen, the European Commission’s director for Schengen, Borders and Visa, said last Monday during a meeting of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee.

European Commission: No extensions for EES rollout

Earlier in February, major European air travel organizations cautioned the European Commission that the EES could cause serious travel disruptions during the summer months, urging that participating states be granted the option to partially or fully pause the system through October 2026.

Nielsen, however, responded that at this stage the Commission has “no plans to propose any changes or extensions of the flexibility,” according to The Local.

The Commission has previously announced that it would allow a partial suspension of EES operations for the next 90 days after the full rollout in April. The regime may possibly be extended another 60 days to cover the peak travel season from July to September.

EES catches 4,000 overstays

Aside from delays at border control points, the EES is bringing some positive results.

Since its launch in October 2025, the system has caught 4,000 people who overstayed their Schengen visas. According to the rules, third-party nationals can only stay 90 days within a 180-day period in the Schengen Zone.

Countries participating in the scheme have registered some 17 million travelers and 30 million border crossings. They also issued 16,000 refusals of entry, Nielsen shared.

Aside from 4,000 overstays, refusals were due to identity fraud, including the use of false documents and attempts to enter or exit a Schengen country with a different passport. The system also identified one victim of trafficking, according to the official.

eu-Lisa lays out plans for EES, ETIAS and Eurodac interoperability

Eu-Lisa’s 2026 outlook has also outlined other plans for European border and security infrastructure, to be achieved with its 319.1 million euros (US$369.5 million) budget for this year.

The EU is planning to launch the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) and introduce the new version of the EU’s centralised biometric database Eurodac.

The new Eurodac will significantly expand the system’s scope, including additional identity data and facial images. It will also enhance interoperability across EU member states, speed up screening procedures, and provide more reliable identification, the agency says.

“As of June 2026, the EU will implement a common set of rules to manage asylum and migration,” says the eu-Lisa document. “To that end, the existing Eurodac fingerprint database will be transformed into a comprehensive asylum and migration management system that is interoperable with all other EU [Justice and Home Affairs] systems managed by eu-LISA.”

Another task will be to add information on criminal records of third-country nationals and stateless persons convicted in the EU to the European Criminal Records Information System for third-country nationals and stateless persons (ECRIS). The new system will be called ECRIS-TCN.

Interoperability is the keyword for 2026. eu-Lisa has already deployed interoperability components for the Shared Biometric Matching Service (sBMS), which stores biometric templates and enables querying of biometric data across national systems. Idemia Public Security and Sopra Steria were awarded the sBMS contract five years ago.

This year, the same will be achieved for the European Search Portal (ESP), which allows authorities to search across systems from different European countries, as well as Europol and Interpol.

Interoperability is also expected to be introduced for the Common Identity Repository (CIR), which collects biographical information on third-country nationals, and the Central Repository for Reporting and Statistics (CRRS).

On the other hand, interoperability for the Multiple-Identity Detector (MID) is still under development. The system enables authorities to detect multiple identities linked to the same biometric data across all EU Justice and Home Affairs systems.

Article Topics

biometric database  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  Entry/Exit System (EES)  |  ETIAS  |  eu-LISA  |  Eurodac  |  Europe  |  identity verification  |  interoperability