The EU has once again postponed the launch of the new biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) that was supposed to become effective in November this year. As reported by the Independent newspaper, the electronic border scheme, which amongst other things will replace passport stamping and speed up queues at airports, isn’t ready yet so needs to be delayed.
The newspaper claims: “The Independent has learnt that the electronic border scheme will not now go ahead this year because the database that it relies on will not be ready in time,” noting that an official decision on a more precise date is expected to be taken in June.
It also claims that while the next date for the EES launch is believed to be May 2024, there is a good chance that it will be later after the summer Olympics that are set to be held in France between July 26th and August 11th, especially as it had previously been reported that the French government was planning to ask the EU to delay the implementation of the EES until the second half of next year, due to the Olympics.
A government source had told the Telegraph in mid-March that the authorities wanted to delay the introduction of EES in order to prevent long border lines at the crossings from the UK and chaos at French airports as a large number of non-EU nationals are expected to reach France for the event, which is one of the biggest organized in the country in the recent years.
Due to the delay of the EES, the launch of the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) has also been postponed to 2024. An exact date for the introduction of the ETIAS is now not known, because the ETIAS cannot go live without the EES in place first, as the two systems are deeply connected to each other.
