Nine Schengen countries, including France, Italy, Greece and Portugal, have asked the European Commission to postpone the full rollout of the Entry/Exit System (EES). The system requires fingerprints and facial images from travellers who are not EU citizens.
Germany, Malta, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland have also requested more time. Spain, which ran into technical problems at the start, is implementing the system in full.
EES is meant to replace passport stamps with a digital record of entries and exits at the Schengen area’s external borders. On a first visit, third-country nationals must give fingerprints and a facial image; later crossings are checked against that record. The system began a phased launch in October 2025 and was supposed to be mandatory at all external crossing points from April 2026. A grace period that allowed countries to pause biometric collection when queues built up expired on 6 September.
The nine governments cite unreliable equipment, long waits at airports and ports, and the risk of disruption in peak season. The delay is not nationwide. Large hubs such as Frankfurt and Amsterdam Schiphol already collect biometrics, while some regional airports and land crossings still do not.
Brussels regards the system as broadly working. EU sources say it has logged about 200 million crossings and refused entry to around 70,000 people. Countries that are not yet collecting fingerprints and facial images at every point are technically in breach of the rules, but Commission sources have indicated they will not face sanctions. No new common deadline for full implementation has been set.
For travellers from outside the EU, the result is a patchwork: in the same country, biometrics may be required at a major airport and not at a neighbouring crossing.
