A bit of an update on EES and ETIAS.
The Commission and Council have approved a draft proposal (reference 2024/0315/COD) for a phased introduction of EES. In doing this, they have mentioned that ETIAS - where traveller need to apply online and in advance for travel authorisation -will be given a new timetable once EES is at a stage where the main stakeholders can move to switch it on. In my opinion, this means ETIAS will not happen in 2025, but 2026 seems a reasonable outcome. This draft proposal now goes to the European Parliament for a First Reading, and that can't be before 21 January, and I suspect it will be quite a few more weeks or months before it completes the Parliament process.
What the proposal does is allow a country to introduce EES at specific borders in a phased manner over 170 days, and in two ways. A border frontier can require registration of passport details on EES only, alternatively they can also record biometric data as well. As far as we can tell, it's only going to be one biometric now, presumably facial rather than finger prints. Over a period of time biometic data must then be added to the process, starting at least 90 days after day 1. If a country can get EES 100% working for all borders on day 1 then that's good but not a requirement. By day 170 all EES frontiers should be 100% recording in EES and 100% biometric. Key to this is that stamps will be both required and regarded as the prime data until EES is fully working, and presumably upto 90 days (260 days from day 1) thereafter, unless the phasing can be completed sooner.
There will be a mechanism to revert back to stamps if EES or the underlying database eu-LISA has an outage, or processing times get too long, but there is an escalation process here which will be unpleasant for the authorities.
One thing I noticed in the regulation (article 5.4) is that border agents will be able to presume on border stamp accuracy during this period, and if they are absent, for whatever reason, then passengers can be denied entry to Schengen. However if the traveller is able to furnish evidence as to why that presumption is incorrect, or if they have right of entry for other reasons such a residency. So I would suggest regular travellers, who do multiple ins-and-outs, to keep their own records and documentation between day 1 and 90 days after full EES go-live, plus one entry thereafter. That said, for very frequent visitors almost no counting of stamps goes on as far as I can tell, most countries don't even try to sequence the stamps in the passengers' passports.
What this means in practice
- EES and ETIAS are still with us, but the key dates remain unknown.
- During a currently undated six month period, or thereabouts, EES and stamping will go together rather than separated, which will certainly slow down the process for everyone, including EU citizens.
- That means that using e-gates for those on EES will be either sub optimal or not possible during this period
- Some people may need to register at the self-service kiosks for EES twice over if biometrics continue to be problematic
- Smaller countries / aiports / ports may well go first here. I guess that could be in the second or third quarter of 2025, but even that's optimistic.
- Larger countries are no fools, they will see the 170 day deadline and may again simply not operate the system.
Unfortunately Schengen / the Commission is still wedded to a rigorous and pro-active measurement of 90/180 days. Other countries (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ) manage perfectly well by reactive measures.