The European Union has rejected calls from airlines and airports to suspend controversial new biometric border controls, despite admitting there are 20 'difficult spots' where passengers face lengthy queues. With the peak summer holiday season about to begin, EU officials acknowledged the Entry/Exit System (EES) was 'not perfect' but said a full suspension was unnecessary and impossible.
Under EES, non-EU travellers must register fingerprints and a facial image on first entry to the Schengen zone, then verify their biometrics on each subsequent trip. Airlines including Ryanair and industry lobby Iata had warned of delays and missed connections in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Belgium, demanding a suspension until next summer to avoid chaos at popular holiday airports such as Alicante, Málaga and Palma.
EU officials argued it was impractical to have the system operational in some countries but not others, as this could leave travellers stranded at borders where controls were not in place. They cited the risk of a passenger being registered as overstaying the 90-day limit if they entered through a biometric checkpoint but left through one without, leading to future entry refusals.
At one small regional airport, 3,000 passengers arrived in a single hour but only four booths were available to check biometrics, causing severe delays. However, EU officials noted this was only a problem for two or three months a year for that holiday destination. Meanwhile, Lisbon eased its queues by deploying extra workers, and 50 new Frontex staff were assigned to Brussels airport.
The system, eight years in the making, has already recorded 110m journeys and refused entry to about 44,500 people. The main reasons were lack of valid justification for a visit, overstaying the 90-day allowance, and being deemed a threat to internal security. EU officials said the technology has helped detect travellers using false documents or second passports to bypass visa rules.
