EES role out

ApolloHubble

I have looked at this forum and other websites to see if there is a definitive answer and I have yet to find one. Being a frequent European traveller, I have had the delight of being fingerprinted and facial recognisioned seven times in different countries so far. Each time I tell them it has already been done, but they still do so. In Hamburg, I had to be taken into a room with an officer as there were issues due to this process having been done so many times! (they were lovely about it though).

In Lyon, we were told we were able to use the E-gates but they decided they would rather keep them empty for an incoming Spanish flight. During our long 45 minute queue wait in Lyon, to get our passports stamped, we did not see any other flight arrive and the e-gates remained empty.

Having just come back from Zurich airport, we tried the e-gates but to no avail. The queue through passport control was very quick but neither myself or my husband had to be fingerprinted, and neither of us were stamped in our passports.

Next time we visit Germany in August we intend to apply for Easypass, but I had a new passport back end of 2023 and it is nearly full of stamps. Some border guards are very good at squeezing them into small spaces, and others seem to delight in stamping right in the centre of a page.

Once back in Heathrow, Luton, Gatwick or Stansted, we witness many non-UK residents using our e-gates and wonder why the EES system does not seem to work for us in Europe. It is clear to us that many border guards have no clue as to what is going on.

I appreciate we are a third country, but I thought the EES system was being set up to keep data up to date, make passport control much quicker, and reduce the stamps in passports. We were orginally told that we would be able to use e-gates by mid-April, which has now changed to September. Does anyone have an idea or are we being led down the garden path?

Woodstok2000

As with anything in the EU, the rollout of EES is a horrendous mix of EU and national regulations, which then need to be applied regionally and rolled out locally. I have also been in and out of the EU many times in the past year and it's been a different experience every time. I know there are official announcements about what is supposed to be happening, but I honestly don't think those could ever be relied upon to determine what you may experience at a particular airport.

As an example, I flew into Naples to be faced with horrendous queues as there were issues with the terminals - the local officials soon just turned them all off, brought in extra staff and processed everyone manually to minimise the delay. Flying out of Athens a week later and when the same issue occurred they just said their hands were tied by the EU and we'd have to put up with the delay. I was at the airport 4 hours before departure, and made it to the gate as boarding was closing.

daveyjp

Sometimes it works, sometimes there are problems, which is no different to how it was on manual checks. I've had some horrendous queues over the years. Best was in Italy when at 1pm all the passport officers went to lunch! No one at all to check and then a single person turned up.

NanookOfTheNorth

I've had my photo and fingerprints, sometimes both, some times only one, sometimes neither at a few airports in Spain, Malta and France in the last 12 months. Airlines tell everybody to get there in plenty of time and allow extra time in case of delays which we did. Most recent at Bordeaux where I get there 3 hours before departure just in case, following advise from Easyjet about potential delays, only to find at that airport terminal they check passports at the same boarding gate queue as boarding the flight so I had the pleasure of watching on FlightRadar24 my plane go from Malaga to UK then UK to Bordeaux before I was able to board. A waste of time, so its helpful if airlines tell relevant information for the airport (they know where I'm going from!) instead of blanket "get there early" messages. It's not a big terminal at Bordeaux in the "Billi L". Getting there early was important as I nearly missed a flight from Malta due to the delays getting through passport control even though I was there early too. I've not seen signs for non EU citizens who have already had photo/fingerprints taken to take a separate queue to speed up entry/exit. Even when I've had photos and finger prints taken the time at the desk has not been long, maybe just a few minutes.

BikingBud

Simple spite by the Eu because we deigned to leave their little club evidenced by the clear gates for every other nation and massive queues for British passport holders

Requires stronger representation our government and by the air carriers.

ETA - Not to mention the potential security risks that a non-collaborative deployment of a supposedly linked system presents.

And the acclaimed free travel within Schengen group countries is also a fallacy:

Germany extends border checks to September 2026 amid falling asylum claims, as ministers defend the controls and eye new EU caps on Schengen suspensions.

Germany will extend temporary border controls by another six months, the Interior Ministry said on Monday (February 16), calling the measures necessary in the absence of a "functional European migration policy."

Spot checks introduced in September 2024 will now remain in force until at least mid-September 2026, after having already been extended twice, Interior Ministry spokesman Leonard Kaminski said.

"Local authorities are still overwhelmed," he said. "We have to do more here so that we get to a situation that is sustainable for our country, for our society."

It's all just a farce.

user1977

And the acclaimed free travel within Schengen group countries is also a fallacy:

Is it in practice? Other posts here don't suggest anyone has encountered checks at intra-Schengen borders.

BikingBud

https://liberties.aljazeera.com/en/germany-will-implement-border-checks/

https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/schengen-area/temporary-reintroduction-border-control_en

The Schengen Borders Code (SBC) provides Member States with the possibility to temporarily reintroduce border control at all or specific parts of their internal borders in the event of a serious threat to public policy or internal security.

The reintroduction of border control at the internal borders is a measure of last resort, which must be limited to exceptional situations and must respect the principles of necessity and proportionality.

The duration of such a temporary reintroduction of border control at the internal borders is limited in time, depending on the legal basis invoked by the Member State introducing such border control.

The scope and duration of reintroduced border control should be restricted to the bare minimum needed to respond to the threat in question. Reintroducing border control at the internal border should only be used as a measure of last resort.

The reintroduction of border control is a prerogative of the Member States, subject to monitoring and reporting obligations of the Commission, who must in certain cases issue an opinion regarding the necessity of the measure and its proportionality.

Currently deployed by 12 countries. 🤷‍♂️

BikingBud

But the real point here is that continental Europe continues to derive significant benefit from British tourists. If it continues to be difficult to travel and people start losing money due to transit delays that are artificially imposed then those nations need to consider the risks to their tourist trade.

ONS:

British tourists spend approximately £60 billion to £65 billion per year in Europe, driving the vast majority of the UK's total global outbound travel spend of £78.6 billion

and: Uk Overseas Spending Deficit

The UK's tourism deficit has reached a record £46.1 billion, as the 10 per cent rise in British spending abroad significantly outpaced the 4 per cent increase in spending by overseas visitors to the UK.

Thos figures do not quite seem to correlate but this is without doubt big business, so I do not understand the spite.

soolin

Flew into Beziers last week 35 degrees heat and we were made to wait outside the tiny terminal in the sun to get through the EEC checks. Several people explained that like us we’d done it all before, but they insisted one queue for everyone, unless you had a non UK passport.

They eventually allowed a couple of parents with babies to stand under a small canopy in partial shade , but wouldn’t allow them to jump the queue at all. One planeload only as no one else really lands there, took us 50 minutes to get to the desk, they took our photo , didn’t do fingerprints though. I’m sort of expecting the same when we fly back out .

TELLIT01

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049492#Comment_82049492

EES doesn't just affect travellers from the UK. It's all non EU travellers entering and leaving the Schengen area.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049606#Comment_82049606

THIS^^

We normally take 2, maybe 3, holidays per year in Europe.

This year, we've been to UK instead. We were thinking of Cyprus (outside EES) but decided against booking when the island came under fire. Our main holiday will now be Morocco.