- A major shift in how Europe controls its borders comes into force at midnight on 10 April
- The EU’s long-awaited Entry/Exit System (EES) will replace passport stamping with biometric tracking
- Countries including Spain, France and Germany will automatically log movements, removing any ambiguity around how long someone has stayed
A major shift in how Europe controls its borders comes into force at midnight on 10 April, as the EU’s long-awaited Entry/Exit System (EES) replaces passport stamping with biometric tracking for millions of travellers.
Under the new system, non-EU visitors will have their facial image and fingerprints recorded and stored each time they enter or leave the Schengen area.
Countries including Spain, France and Germany will automatically log movements, removing any ambiguity around how long someone has stayed.
For officials, they are focusing on tighter security, better tracking of overstayers, and a more modern border system.
But with the rollout already facing delays, technical issues and mounting queues, questions are growing over whether the technology could introduce new risks of its own.
Spain is among the countries leading the rollout, installing more than 700 self-service kiosks at major airports and training hundreds of additional police officers to deal with passengers who cannot use the automated system.
Even so, early signs suggest the transition will not be seamless, as industry groups say processing times at borders have already increased significantly during busy periods, with travellers being told to arrive earlier than usual, per the BBC.
Elsewhere, some countries are still struggling to fully connect to the central system, while key UK departure points have yet to introduce full biometric checks.
Airlines and airport bodies, including Airlines for Europe, warn that queues of up to two hours are now being seen at peak times.
Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has been particularly critical, describing the rollout as disorganised and warning of ‘significant disruption’ for passengers, per Biometric Update.
However, supporters of the system point to its early results, with EU officials saying the EES has already helped identify hundreds of individuals considered security risks and detect cases of identity fraud, where travellers attempted to enter using different documents.
But the scale of the data being collected is also raising concerns. The system stores sensitive biometric information for up to three years.
While the EU says strict safeguards are in place, critics argue that any centralised database of this kind could become a target for cyberattacks.
There are also fears that operational problems could have knock-on effects for security. Long queues and delays may put pressure on border staff, potentially reducing the time available for checks.
At the same time, technical gaps between countries could create inconsistencies that determined individuals might exploit.
The system will automatically track time spent in the Schengen area, meaning overstays will be flagged instantly and shared across all participating countries.
For frequent visitors and business travellers, this removes any room for error that previously existed under the passport stamp system.
The changes do not stop there. The EES is expected to feed into a further layer of border control due to come into force in 2026, adding another step for visa-exempt visitors.
For now, the focus is on whether the system can cope with the busy summer ahead.
