ATHENS, LISBON, ZAGREB – The new EU entry and exit system (EES), which was supposed to be a revolution in border control, turned into a real fiasco.
Most important:
- Hours-long waits and missed flights across Europe
- Greece has already suspended biometric controls for tourists
- Italy, Portugal and Croatia are considering the same move
After Greece was the first to “break the ice” and suspend biometric checks for Britons until September, experts believe that Italy and Portugal, and potentially Croatia, will follow suit.
Although EES became fully operational last month in 25 Schengen countries, including Croatia, its application caused chaos, hours-long delays and missed flights.
The system requires non-EU travelers to provide biometric data – facial scans and fingerprints – at special kiosks, which in practice has proven to be an insurmountable obstacle for airports in the middle of the season.
Greece has decided to suspend the application of the rules until September in order to protect its economy from the “sloppy” introduction of the system, given that British tourists bring 3.5 billion euros to the economy there annually.
Tourism experts estimate that Portugal and Italy will not sit idly by while Greece “hijacks” their guests by making it easier to cross the border.
“No country wants to watch its tourists go elsewhere just because it adheres to EU rules that don’t work,” experts from the company Holiday Extras say, reports Dnevnik hr.
According to their estimates, the system could collapse like a house of cards before the peak of the season, and Spain, France and Croatia are among the countries that could give way, writes the Daily Mail.
Ryanair: “IT system is half-baked”
Harsh criticism is also coming from Ryanair, from where they are calling on governments to urgently suspend EES by September. Ryanair’s Neil McMahon claims governments are trying to introduce a “half-baked IT system” in the middle of the busiest travel season, leaving passengers paying the price by waiting in queues for hours.
It is believed that the European Commission is currently powerless. Even if the EU were to initiate proceedings against countries that break the rules, any financial penalties would be negligible compared to the tourism revenue those countries would lose due to airport chaos.
Travel agency associations advise travelers who still have to go through the EES system to use the official mobile application in order to register their data in advance and at least somewhat speed up the process.
