End of EES ‘flexibilities’: will Monday see long queues at French borders?

‘Flexibilities’ which allowed French border points to temporarily stop collecting traveller’s biometric data at busy times are set to run out this weekend – potentially leading to longer queues from Monday.

French borders are known to have been making extensive use of EU rules which allowed border guards to halt the collection of facial images and fingerprint scans for the Entry/Exit System (EES) when queues built up.

In theory the regulation says this should be for up to six hours at a time, with notification made to the EU authorities. In practice, some busy borders have so far operated this continually. Asked about this by The Connexion, an EU source said there was nothing stopping another six-hour period following from a previous six-hour period.

This has notably been the case for Eurostar passengers and for car passengers at Dover and also at Eurotunnel’s Folkestone and Calais terminals.

These locations are all equipped with pre-registration kiosks for EES, the EU’s new digital border system for non-EU travellers entering the Schengen area. The kiosks are meant to help travellers log their own data prior to arrival at the border point. 

However, they have been dogged by technical problems relating to the way in which a traveller’s data is transmitted from the kiosk into central databases.

They have thus not been in use at these sites and, for the most part, have not been in use where installed at larger airports either.

Are the border points ready?

A spokeswoman for Port Boulogne Calais, where tablet computers are intended to be used for pre-registration, said: “Indeed, the authorities have allowed a degree of flexibility regarding the taking of fingerprints and photographs.

“In principle, unless there is a delay, the new procedures are due to be strictly applied from September 6.”

She did not clarify, however, if their tablets are now working reliably.

The team at Eurostar told us on August 13 that “the kiosks are still undergoing testing and no fixed date has been provided by the French authorities”, and we have not received any update of a change on this.”

Similarly, Eurotunnel told us on the same date: “There are no updates to report at this time.

“We continue testing with the authorities ahead of the future activation of biometric capture. We are awaiting confirmation from the French authorities on the timing of this next phase, expected after the summer peak.”

The Port of Dover last updated us on July 15, when a spokeswoman said: “Biometric data collection will not be in for summer as the French technology hasn’t been installed to run the kiosks we’ve supplied. We don’t have a date for this going live. So for cars, it’s manual file creation at the border at the eastern docks.”

French airports organisation UAF told us on June 25 that “tests on the kiosks have intensified these last weeks, in particular in Paris, as well as at certain regional airports such as Nice and Lyon notably”.

Its legal and safety expert added at the time: “However, these flexibilities are, in theory, due to expire after September 6, which is why it is crucial for airports to have the kiosks up and running before that date. Unfortunately, at this stage, we have no guarantee that this will be the case.”

We were also updated by the French interior ministry on July 15, when a spokesperson said: “The government has undertaken significant technical work to enable the widespread roll-out of pre-registration systems (kiosks and tablets), with a view to minimising the impact of EES on border control times as much as possible.

“This work will continue throughout the summer, with the aim of achieving a satisfactory level of performance and stability by September 6.”

The spokesperson said France and seven other EU states and Switzerland were, however, asking the EU to extend the flexibilities.

We have received no information from EU sources as to the progress of these talks, though we were told that the European Commission was working closely with member states experiencing issues to help them to resolve these.

It is unclear therefore, whether the border points will be well prepared to operate EES with full biometric collection from Monday, and whether kiosks and tablets will be operational to help avoid long queues.

We note that no specific sanctions are provided for in the EES regulations for failing to follow the timetable. Persistent failure to comply with EU law could ultimately lead the European Commission to launch infringement proceedings, a process that can take several years and can eventually result in referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union and potentially financial penalties.

Often, however, the EU prefers to resolve issues through preliminary exchange of documents and talks.