Although it had initially been envisaged, on Wednesday 16 July, as part of its presentation of the 2028-2034 budget, the European Commission decided not to include the future European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) as a future new own resource, but as ‘other source of income’ for the EU budget.
On this occasion, it proposed increasing the fee for this future ETIAS from €7 to €20, explaining in the draft regulation that it had discussed this possibility in the ‘own resources’ working groups under the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Acting in 2018, this system, like the American ESTA or the British ETA, should enable the EU to obtain additional security information on travellers arriving in the EU who do not require a visa.
However, the European ETIAS has been subject to a number of delays, linked to the interoperability of European information systems and in particular to the EU’s entry/exit system, which will be phased in from October. ETIAS could therefore come into force in 2026.
According to the draft delegated regulation, the Commission “has identified a number of factors which are likely to result in a significant or persistent increase in the costs of operation and maintenance of the ETIAS system, beyond those anticipated at the time Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 was adopted. Firstly, the cumulative inflation rate in the Union has increased by 30.12% since 2016. Secondly, the number of visa-exempt travellers entering the Union has increased significantly in recent years and is expected to continue to increase in the near future”, explains the Commission.
“Finally, additional ETIAS functionalities have been implemented for the functioning of ETIAS, that were not anticipated when Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 was adopted”.
It is also necessary to align ETIAS travel authorisation fees with those of comparable systems to ensure competitive parity and a level playing field with other travel authorisation programmes around the world (ETA costs £20; ESTA costs $21).
Link to the rules: https://aeur.eu/f/hx2 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)