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The European Commission has made a new proposal to implement its Entry/Exit System (EES) gradually for third country travellers to the Schengen area. These changes are designed to accommodate the varying levels of readiness among Member States. 

On 5 December 2024, the European Commission announced the proposal, with a go-live date to be announced sometime in 2025, after the measures have been reviewed by the European Parliament and European Council. Updated website and other communications will be made available at that time. 

The Entry/Exit System (EES) was due to go live from 10 November 2024, but has been delayed due to some EU member states failing to confirm they were ready to implement it. The proposal is designed to accommodate this, to minimise wait times at external borders to the Schengen region, and to ensure the system is as resilient as possible following launch. 

The proposal allows for:

  • A gradual rollout over a six-month period
  • Mandatory manual passport stamping of all third country nationals’ entries and exits during the implementation period
  • A minimum of 10% of border crossings being registered by the system at the beginning of the period, with full rollout achieved by the end of the six months
  • Registration of all entry refusals at all crossing points where EES is in effect
  • The option of a member state to roll the system out fully, with any member state opting for the gradual rollout to provide monthly progress reports during the implementation period
  • The option for member states to gradually record travellers’ biometric information
  • Disregarding the possible consequences of the tool that calculates the maximum remaining duration of authorised stay for a traveller
  • Only carrying out identity verification and previous registration of third country nationals at border crossing points operating EES with biometric functionality in place
  • Some EES data access functionalities to be modified or suspended during the implementation period, including only allowing carriers to use the EES web service after the first 90 days; and
  • Temporarily suspending the recording of any EES data (full suspension) or the recording of biometric data (partial suspension) if there is an exceptional failure of the EES central system, national systems or communication infrastructure, or excessive waiting times at borders – partial suspension will also be allowed for a limited time after the implementation period if there are exceptional circumstances leading to excessive waiting times at borders.

If you have any queries about this update, please contact a member of our Immigration team.

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