Today, April 10, was the date set by the EU for full operation of the European Entry/Exit System (EES), however many French border points are not ready.
Transport industry contacts provide a patchy picture of operations on the day when EES was meant to be working at full speed.
Following a six month phase-in, the full registration of non-EU citizen visitors, including taking their facial image and fingerprints (‘biometrics’), was expected to now take place at all of the EU’s external Schengen borders, allowing passport stamping to come to an end.
However, technical problems with pre-registration equipment (self-service kiosks and tablet computers) are still hampering this in France. The world's most popular tourist destination welcomes over 100 million visitors a year, many of them non-EU citizens, including Americans (whose numbers increased by more than 10% last year) and post-Brexit Britons.
EES involves collection of passport data plus fingerprints and a facial image for all non-EU/non-EEA/non-Swiss travellers crossing external Schengen area borders on temporary visits. Non-EU foreigners living in the EU with long-stay visas and/or residency cards are not affected by the rule, but may find themselves caught up in longer ‘non-EU’ queues.
With regard to France, this affects French airports, the Gare du Nord and the Channel ports, including where French border checks are undertaken on British soil at Dover (ferries), Eurotunnel (Folkestone) and Eurostar (St Pancras).
Contingency measures are allowed for in the EU regulations.
For three months, until July, countries may apply ‘partial suspension’ (not collecting biometrics) for up to six hours at a time at specific crossing points if queues build up. They must report the reasons to the EU.
This flexibility may be extended for a further two months, until September, if fewer than 80% of passenger records during the phased start included full biometric data, which is likely to apply in France.
Port of Dover
The biggest Channel ferry port is still not operating EES for passengers travelling in cars, only for coaches and lorry drivers.
The original aim was that cars would be directed to a new area where they would park and occupants go into a building to pre-register at kiosks and give biometrics. They would then drive to the eastern docks for final border checks. So far, this is not happening.
A spokesperson said: “We are yet to implement EES at the port of Dover for cars as we understand there are still technical issues; the same as for Eurotunnel Le Shuttle.”
Eurotunnel
Eurotunnel has not been registering car travellers so far, but is taking an extra step today.
The firm said that the French border police will start creating EES files for relevant travellers in cars. However, they will not take biometrics and passports will continue to be stamped. It is planned that customers will not experience any significant change to their journeys.
A spokeswoman said: “To support Eurotunnel’s expected fluidity on its terminals throughout this period, the police aux frontières [PAF] plan to operate the full number of lanes.
“Operational arrangements, including file creation, lane allocation and booth usage, may be adjusted dynamically by the police depending on real-time traffic levels.”
Travellers will stay inside their vehicles during the process and no new documents or actions are required on their part.
The spokeswoman added: “Working closely with PAF and the French authorities, full biometric checks will be introduced once we receive the formal go‑ahead, with the rollout carefully scheduled and coordinated, particularly during peak periods.”
Eurostar
Travellers are being registered in EES manually by border guards. Eurostar awaits the go-ahead for use of kiosks and further updates to the kiosk software.
Additional manual check booths have been deployed to improve flows. Careful timetable and staffing planning will be used in a bid to maintain fluidity.
Asked if all relevant travellers will be registered by today (with or without kiosks) a spokesperson said: “Our focus is on supporting our customers, and we have invested significantly, including additional staff in stations.
“As with any new border process, there can be an adjustment period, especially during busy travel times. We continue to work collaboratively with French authorities, who operate the EES systems, to make improvements.”
Airports
The general delegate of the Union des Aéroports Français (UAF), representing French airports, Nicolas Paulissen, said all relevant air travellers are being registered in EES, but full collection of biometrics is still often not occurring for much of the day, especially at large, busy airports.
This is because of technical problems with kiosks, meaning full EES procedures must in most cases still be carried out at border guards’ desks
At smaller regional airports where there are no kiosks, travellers are likely to find that full checks (including biometrics) are now done at the border guard’s desk, with possible suspension of biometrics at very busy times (as intended in the EU rules).
However, this will also depend on whether the Douanes (customs) service, which runs the checks at these airports, succeeds in deploying sufficient staff.
Mr Paulissen said France is expected to continue to make full use of the contingency measures allowing ‘partial suspensions’ but it is unlikely at large airports that in the coming weeks these will be limited to occasional six-hour periods.
The problem with kiosks is that when they are used, around half of travellers arrive at the border guard’s desk without the data having been transmitted from the kiosk to the border guard’s computer. This is not due to travellers using the kiosks wrongly, Mr Paulissen said.
“If, today, we applied 100% checks with biometrics on 100% of travellers, it would be impossible. The queues would be too long.”
He said the government estimates the problems with the kiosks will be resolved by June.
Work is ongoing into adapting the EU’s Travel to Europe mobile app for France which is hoped to help travellers pre-register data before arrival. However it is unlikely to be in use in France before the end of the year, and even then may require years of improvements so as to take biometrics, Mr Paulissen predicts. So far, only Sweden is reported to make significant use of it.
Mr Paulissen said PARAFE e-gates, where they exist, are now linked with EES, so travellers eligible to use them (eg. visiting Britons and Americans) may do so in combination with use of a kiosk – however this presupposes that a kiosk should be functioning (including on subsequent entries and exists, when checking of one of the biometrics will be needed to verify the person’s identity).
He had no updates as to solutions for foreign residents in France (eg. with residency cards and/or long-stay visas) who may get caught up in longer queues and who, after the start of EES, were no longer able to use PARAFE passport e-gates. The government has been looking into how this can be resolved, so they may move through border control efficiently.
“I expect France to use all the flexibility allowed for in the EU regulations until the end of August. But after that the EU texts do not provide for anything. There is no plan B and that is a real problem,” he added.
Mr Paulissen said if something needs to be done to change the EU regulations again (as was done last year to allow the phased start), to allow a longer period of contingency measures, it must be done now. “The interior ministry has assured us that fluidity is also important to them.”
Normandy ports
In March, Ports de Normandie (Caen-Ouistreham, Cherbourg, Dieppe) reported still awaiting deliveries of pre-registration equipment, which was said to be hampering efficiency. We have not heard further updates.
EU statement
A Spokeswoman for the European Commission stated in a recent update: “With the EES, we are building the most modern IT border system in the world.
“In the past five months, we had more than 44.5 million entries and exits registered. There have been over 24,000 refusals of entry, of which over 600 persons were assessed to be security threats to the union. With the system operating well, it takes only 70 seconds to register an entry or exit.
“All member states had declared their readiness ahead of its progressive launch. This was a legal precondition for setting the launch date of the EES. The majority of the member states are already registering over 75% of border crossings.
“Despite the agreed timeline, a few member states are encountering technical difficulties. The commission is in close contact with these member states and is also sharing best practices from member states where the system is working well.
“The EES rules foresee flexibility to ensure border fluidity, in particular in view of the coming summer. There are fall-back solutions that member states can rely on if needed.
“Border fluidity should also be ensured by the member states by providing enough resources and personnel at heavy-traffic border crossing points.”
The interior ministry recently told us how technical work on the kiosks was being finalised.
- The Connexion has a help guide to the EES and the related ETIAS scheme, which is complimentary to subscribers.
