The Netherlands, France and Germany have asked the European Commission to postpone the European Union’s Entry/Exit system (EES), also known as the ‘EU smart border’ system, which is due to come into force on 10 November, after years of delay, the Financial Times reported on 27 September.
Adopted in 2017, the EES is a new automated system for digitally collecting the personal data of third country nationals, whether or not they are subject to a visa requirement, which will be carried out on entry to and exit from the Schengen area.
It is intended to replace the manual stamping of third-country nationals’ passports, and will enable electronic checks to be carried out on the entry, exit, refusal of entry and length of stay of third country nationals crossing the external borders of the Schengen area for a short stay (maximum 90 days out of a total period of 180 days), so that any overruns or infringements can be detected immediately.
According to the daily, however, the airports in these countries are not technologically ready to implement the new system, and the general interoperability structure, steered by the European agency eu-LISA, is not fully operational either.
The global interoperability of European information systems has been plagued by delays for several years. In March 2023, the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU was already warning of technical problems and difficulties encountered with service providers, even though the EES was due to start in May 2023 (see EUROPE 13136/6).
A delay in bringing the EES system into service could have a knock-on effect on other EU information systems, in particular the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), it also warned.
Adopted in 2019, the regulations on the interoperability of information systems aim to link up the Schengen Information System, the Visa Information System, the ETIAS (due to come into force in 2025), the Entry/Exit System and the European Criminal Records Information System.
Contacted by Agence Europe, the European Commission had not responded to our requests for confirmation by the time of going to press, nor did it provide any comment. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)