Deadline for EES Approaches, ETIAS Postponed
According to the Migration and Home Affairs policy section of the European Union, the Entry/Exit System (EES) for registering travellers from third- countries each time they cross the EU external border is expected to be operational by the end of May 2023 1. Here, we take a look at countries’ progress towards that deadline.
The European Commission’s (EC) Smart Borders package was proposed in February 2013, following the EC’s suggestion in 2008 to establish the EES and a Registered Traveller Programme.
In April 2016, the EC adopted a revised legislative proposal for Smart Borders. The revised legislative proposal included a regulation for the establishment of the EES 2.
As the deadline for implementation of the EES approaches so have the efforts of countries to make the system operational.
Czech Border Police and the Prague Airport’s authority have started testing travellers who had never used registration kiosks before to try them out. The two ‘easykiosks,’ from German cybersecurity company secunet, take passengers through the registration process, questionnaire and biometrics capture – face and four fingers – to collect all the data fields for entry into the EES database.
While the pandemic vastly impacted the travel sector, border authorities are having to handle increasing passenger numbers as life goes back to normal. Furthermore, authorities need to comply with new border control requirements for the EES, including performing biometric enrolment of Third Country Nationals (TCN).
In addition to the hardware, the EES application will be integrated with the existing manual border control system. This software visualises the process and helps the border guards to monitor data capture, verification and background checks.
Zurich Airport is currently implementing an EES-compliant border control application and is also supplying a central server component, which connects the various border control components and will communicate directly with the EU’s central EES.
In the future, the infrastructure will be further optimised with EES-compliant components, such as automated border control (ABC) systems and self-service kiosks for biometric pre-enrolment.
All European states are now changing their border control technology to prepare for the changeover to the EES.
The coordinating body of the EES is eu-LISA, the European agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice – headquartered in Tallinn (Estonia), with an active site in Strasbourg (France) and a backup site in Sankt Johann im Pongau (Austria).
However, each member state will be responsible for the organisation, management, operation and maintenance of its existing national border infrastructure and its connection to the EES.
In a related piece of news, the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) has announced that the plan for third country arrivals to apply for a visa waiver and undergo biometric capture to enter (or leave) the European Union’s Schengen area has been postponed (again), this time for another six months until November 2023.
ETIAS requires pre-registration ahead of arrival for anyone who does not require a visa for the EU bloc, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
UK travellers will also need to apply by submitting details on health, education and criminal convictions. The waiver costs €7 and is valid for three years. Biometrics are not collected as part of the ETIAS application, but fingerprints and face biometrics are collected when the person travels to the Schengen area.
2 - https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/pages/page/smart-borders-background_en
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