On Wednesday 5 March in Brussels, the EU’s interior ministers approved a gradual launch of the EU’s ‘Entry/Exit’ System, which should start operating in October (see EUROPE 13539/9).
This new digital border management system “will enable us to better protect our territory and combat identity fraud”, commented Poland’s Minister of the Interior and Administration Tomasz Siemoniak during a brief public session on the subject.
The EES is an IT system that will digitally record the entries and exits, passport data, fingerprints and facial images of third-country nationals travelling for short stays in an EU Member State.
All Member States will have to start implementing the EES in October, and the system will have to be fully operational, after a transition period, six months later.
As part of the progressive roll-out, Member States will gradually start using the EES and will aim to register a minimum of 10% of border crossings after the first month. For the first 60 days, Member States will be able to operate the EES without biometric functionalities. After three months, Member States will have to introduce biometric functionality at at least half of their border crossing points. EU countries should achieve full registration of all persons by the end of the phasing-in period.
Until the end of this period, they will also continue to stamp travel documents manually.
The regulation does, however, allow those Member States that wish to do so to start making full use of the system from day one.
The EES, managed centrally by the eu-LISA agency, will allow EU Member States real-time access to the personal data of third-country nationals, their travel history and information on compliance with the authorised duration of stay in the Schengen area. The aim is to reduce the risk of identity fraud and overstaying, and to enhance Schengen area security.
The European Parliament still has to approve this draft regulation.
UK authorisation system. EU nationals will now have to apply for a digital travel permit to enter the UK from 5 March, as part of Britain’s latest move to digitalise its borders, AFP reported.
The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system - similar to the ESTA system in the United States and the future European ETIAS (delayed because the EES was postponed, editor’s note) - will be compulsory for European visitors from April, after being rolled out to US, Canadian and other visa-exempt nationals in January.
From 5 March, EU citizens can already apply for a pre-travel pass for short visits to the UK. The ETA application currently costs £10 (€12), but is set to rise to £16. It allows visits of up to six months and is valid for two years.
Link to general approach: https://aeur.eu/f/fqf (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)