EU official warns EES will take ‘two years to stabilise’

An EU official has warned it will take up to two years for the Entry/Exit System to “stabilise”, a forecast which Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer described as “very painful”.

Uku Särekanno, a deputy executive director at Frontex, which helps manage the EU’s external borders, said collecting fingerprints on travellers’ first entry was “probably the most challenging part” of the EES rollout.

“We expect the situation will stabilise in one or two years because the most challenging part is the first enrolment,” he said, noting the fingerprint requirements should be dropped on subsequent visits.

Responding to reports that some travellers have been asked for fingerprints even after their first visit, he said such approaches would need to be “corrected”.

“We’re trying to ensure there’s a coherent approach to the border procedures,” added Särekanno, who was speaking at Abta’s Travel Matters conference in London.

“We’re putting in a lot of effort to ensure practices are harmonised.”

Countries’ differing management of the EES rollout was a further factor shaping his prediction it would take time to achieve a smooth system.

“In reality, there are some who are managing it rather well and have dedicated resources for them to follow the processes,” he said. “There are others who are still struggling.”

Särekanno said there were no plans to extend the temporary right for EES processes to be suspended for up to six hours at a time in cases of severe delays and overcrowding.

“It’s a temporary relief,” he said. “This is ending in September and we expect most of the procedures will be in line by that time.”

Tanzer said it was “very painful” to hear it could take up to two years for the EES to stabilise.

He added: “There are things they have not got sorted out at all. I think they really need to tackle some of those logistics on the ground as well as getting the machines up and running.”

Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said he was “not really” reassured by Särekanno’s comments.

“I thought that was very interesting in terms of the European approach. I think we’ve got some work to do,” he said.