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Europe’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) was meant to modernise border controls, but months after its launch, chaos and confusion continue to plague travellers.
Now, an EU official has admitted it could take up to two years for the controversial scheme to fully settle down – a prospect the travel industry has branded “very painful”.
Frontex, a company which helps manage the EU’s external borders, has admitted that the collection of biometric data is one of the main issues causing teething problems with the scheme.
Uku Särekanno, a deputy executive director at Frontex, said that getting fingerprints from non-EU travellers on their first entry to the Schengen Area was “probably the most challenging part” of the rollout.
“We expect the situation will stabilise in one or two years because the most challenging part is the first enrolment,” Särekanno said, speaking at an event held by ABTA, a UK-based association of travel agents and tour operators, in London.
He spoke out against the fact that some travellers have been asked to provide fingerprints after their first visits – something not required by EES policies.
“We’re trying to ensure there’s a coherent approach to the border procedures,” Särekanno added.
“We’re putting in a lot of effort to ensure practices are harmonised.”
In response to the two-year comment, ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer called the warning “very painful”.
A significant issue with the rollout has been that individual countries have taken different approaches to its implementation.
Since mid-April this year, EES is supposed to have been in full effect at all borders of the Schengen free movement zone, but there have been lengthy queues at popular tourist destinations, including in Spain, Portugal and France.
Greece had all but suspended the checks for British citizens, but recently scrapped that plan. In late May, the foreign ministry said it had no information that “specific nationalities are temporarily exempt from the relevant procedure.”
Särekanno acknowledged the difference in rollout across the EU, saying it was having a knock-on effect on smoothing out the system.
“There are some who are managing it rather well and have dedicated resources for them to follow the processes,” he said. “There are others who are still struggling.”
In what will be bad news for travellers heading into the busy summer season, he added that there are no plans to extend individual countries’ abilities to suspend EES processes in order to ease queues during particularly busy periods.
Nevertheless, the Frontex representative said he hopes that, by September, the kinks will have been ironed out.
Not all officials were reassured by his comments.
Speaking afterwards, Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said “I think we’ve got some work to do”.