What consequences will the EU entry/exit system have on travellers?

Third-country nationals will soon have to scan their fingerprints and have a photograph of their face taken when arriving in the European Union.

European ministers gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for the gradual launch of the EU's digital border management system, known as the entry/exit system (EES), which will register the biometric data of non-European visitors on arrival.

"Europe is thus putting in place the most technologically advanced border management system in the world", declared Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, at a press conference following the Justice and Home Affairs Council.

He stated that this new system would make it possible to strengthen "the effectiveness of border controls," to "detect and prevent crime and terrorist acts" and to "combat illegal migration."

It will apply to third-country nationals travelling to the Schengen area for a total of 90 days within a 180-day period.

No precise launch date has been set, but the European Council is aiming for a gradual launch starting in the autumn.

Data protection concerns

Julia Behrens, project officer for asylum and migration at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), believes that this electronic system could make it easier for individuals to prove that they are legally on European soil, as stamps on passports can be wrong or illegible and passports can be lost, "which can lead to wrong conclusions, for example that the person has stayed too long" on European soil.

On the other hand, she believes this digital system could pose risks for data protection.

"When biometric data is collected and processed, the individual is always in a situation of power imbalance vis-à-vis the state collecting the data because he or she may not understand the language. They may not be able to use the computers. There are few lawyers who know the subject to help them assert their rights. This situation could therefore make the individual more vulnerable," explains Behrens.

She points out that this system could impact the prevention of discrimination, the right of asylum as well as children's rights.

"Research has shown that biometric processing does not work as well on people of colour," she adds.

"In the entry and exit system, while fingerprints only have to be taken from the age of 12, for facial images there is no age limit. So even babies will have to provide their facial images", she adds.

She is therefore calling for border guards to be made more aware of these risks.

Impact on tourism

While in the past the tourism industry anticipated delays at borders, it is now more optimistic.

"It's going to be quite a slow process - getting fingerprints and photos of everyone - but once that's established, I think things will go a bit smoother," Tom Jenkins, CEO of the European Tourism Association (ETOA) tells Euronews.

"The big problem we have is that we don't know when it's going to happen. It's been postponed several times." So there's a lot of uncertainty hanging over the industry at the moment."

The system, which dates back to 2016, has been postponed several times in order for member states to better prepare and due to technical problems.

"The difficulty will be that this is a major IT project and we have so many different states and so many entry and exit points. So it's going to be very difficult to predict how it's all going to work from day one," says Robert Baltus, Head of Operations at the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA).

This, however, is just the first step.

Nationals from 59 visa-exempt countries will need to get prior authorisation to travel to 30 European countries under ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System). The start date for this has not yet been set.