British travellers entering the EU: post-Brexit border checks pushed back

Post-Brexit border checks pushed back for British travellers entering the EU

Image of train ready to enter the channel tunnel Credit: Tony Hisgett/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

British travellers entering the EU look won’t currently be required to undergo fingerprint and biometric checks, as Europe’s entry/exit system (EES) looks to be further delayed.

With implementation originally planned for 2021, EES seems very unlikely to be functional until at least 2024. This is good news for British travellers entering the EU. Although a formal announcement is expected in June, a number of EU states have already expressed concern that the process will vastly reduce their border efficiency.

Although some believe that the system might come into effect in May 2024, there is much opposition in France, which will host the Olympic Games in Paris that summer. With many thousands of athletes and sports fans arriving for this event, the new EES could prove very problematic for French border control.

With the next online meeting regarding the EES due in May 2023, there is the chance of a further postponement of the system’s implementation until November 2024. This will please a number of EU and non-EU countries as well as British travellers entering the EU.

As Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port Of Dover, told The Independent: “The introduction of the European entry/exit system with a set of biometric controls – that’s going to present some challenges. We still have some way to go before we’re confident in a solution being delivered.”

Though the EES system was in development before the Brexit vote, it would appear that it might only worsen the added bureaucracy at British borders that the decision to leave the European Union has caused.

The system was originally designed to further secure borders of the Schengen Area and register fingerprints, facial biometrics, and the time and date of entry and exit. This is expected to be followed by the Etias or Eurovisa permit at the cost of 7€.

With many many obstacles and opponents to EES, we currently wait for an announcement later this year as to when this project is likely to be implemented. In the meantime for British travellers, entering the EU remains that little bit simpler.

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Written by

David Laycock

Dave Laycock has always written. Poems, songs, essays, academic papers as well as newspaper articles; the written word has always held a great fascination for him and he is never happier than when being creative. From a musical background, Dave has travelled the world performing and also examining for a British music exam board. He also writes, produces and performs and records music. All this aside, he is currently fully focussed on his journalism and can’t wait to share more stories from around the world and beyond.

Comments


    • Mark Whittle

      19 April 2023 • 08:42

      typical E.U. acting like children thats one of the reasons we voted to leave . There is no reason to do this because nothing has changed we are still in Europe and still trade they need to grow up.

    • David Goulty

      19 April 2023 • 17:04

      And it’s not likely any of us would be wanting to illegally stay anywhere in the EU. They can’t even entice immigrants to stay there they only transit the EU countries to get to the UK

    • DJH

      19 April 2023 • 20:18

      Really working well with the hundreds of thousand immigrants every year, another waste of money.

    Comments are closed.