Britons have been warned that holidaymakers may face airport terminal chaos across the EU this year, as the mobile app designed to ensure seamless entry into the bloc may not be ready on time.
The app for the Entry/Exit System (EES) is supposed to be ready for October 2024, but the developer has warned it may not meet its deadline, prompting concerns that destinations popular with Brits may see their airports overrun.
A local publication in the Canary Islands, Canarian Weekly, has expressed concerns that its airports may not be able to cope with the hoards of Brits expected to descend on the islands if the EES app is not up and running.
The EES app will launch across the Schengen Area – the EU’s free movement zone – but visitors from non-EU states will have to provide fingerprints and facial scans to enter, as per the new rules, before the app is operational.
France is unlikely to have implemented the system until “around the summer of 2025”, according to Nichola Mallon of trade body Logistics UK.
Ms Mallon told Politico: “If EES is implemented in its current form, it will cause friction, disruption and delays for UK and EU freight with significant negative consequences for logistics operators, supply chains and UK and EU economies”.
The additional concern is that although the EES app will be rolled out centrally from the Commission, it is down to each member state to make sure it is implemented correctly.
Earlier this month Jesper Christensen, director of channel operations at shipping company DFDS, told the UK parliament’s European Scrutiny Committee last week: “The EU commission will supply the software but each member state will have to provide the face of it, so that could take some time to get it to work.”
Anitta Hipper, the Commission’s home affairs spokesperson, told POLITICO: “The mobile app for pre-registration of third country nationals’ data is currently under development. The app will be made available for the Schengen countries as from the Entry/Exit System start of operations.”
