The EU is refusing to suspend strict new border controls despite pressure from airports and airlines who have demanded they be put on hold until after summer amid fears of chaos at holiday hotspots.
EU officials admitted the Entry/Exit System (EES), in which most non-EU travellers have to undergo biometric border checks, was “not perfect” but a full suspension was “not needed” and “not possible”.
They said that having the system operating in some countries and not others would lead to even more problems, as travellers entering the Schengen area where controls are in place and leaving where they are not might be at risk of being incorrectly registered as overstaying their 90-day stay – and later refused entry.
An EU official said the system worked without any issues at a large majority of the 1,500 border crossing points, with only 20 recognised as “difficult spots”.
But the EU has vowed to ramp up efforts to resolve the bloc’s new border check system issues, migration chief Magnus Brunner wrote in a letter seen by AFP, after airports and airlines blamed EES for disruption.
The European aviation industry had warned in a joint letter last week that it was causing wait times of up to five hours, calling on the EU to act now to prevent summer travel chaos.
READ MORE: ‘Critical point’ – Europe’s airports demand urgent action to avoid summer border delays
Organisations representing European airports and airlines called on the European Commission to adopt urgent measures to limit delays at border checks, which are now not only causing disruptions for travellers but also “undermining Europe’s reputation, European tourism and connectivity,” the letter said.
Since October 2025, the 29 countries of the Schengen area (25 EU member states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) have been operating the Entry/Exit System (EES), an IT scheme that gathers digital personal records of visitors from third countries and replaces the manual stamping of passports.
The system requires passengers to register fingerprints and facial images the first time they cross an external Schengen border. The data is recorded in a Europe-wide database that tracks each time travellers enter and exit the Schengen area to avoid people staying beyond the limits of the 90/180-day rule, and replaces manual passport stamping.
READ MORE: ‘Lot of work’ needed to resolve Europe’s border travel woes, EU chief admits
Since the introduction of the EES, however, several locations have reported significant delays at border crossings, with the situation worsening at peak times, such as the Easter holidays.
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) last week demanded a suspension of the new controls until next summer amid fears of chaos in holiday hotspots.
Iata said passengers had experienced “delays and missed connections” in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Belgium, while Ryanair warned of “queue chaos” in airports at popular holiday destinations.
Brunner said the EES rules already anticipated early challenges and allowed a certain amount of flexibility until early September, such as temporarily suspending the registration of biometrics.
He said factors unrelated to the EES could be the cause of delays, like insufficient staff or lack of adequate infrastructure.
Brunner defended the new checks that are “making Europe safer, every day” and stressed they had been “rolled out carefully and gradually”.
Under the new EES regulations, airports and ports can temporarily suspend the system if queues become unmanageable, but that opt-out is due to end in September.
With reporting by AFP
