Boost for British travellers as post-Brexit border rules delayed over system fears

British travellers entering the EU will not be required to have their fingerprints and facial biometrics taken until 2024 at the earliest as post-Brexit checks are pushed back.

- SIMON CALDER

Europe’s delayed entry/exit system (EES) was expected to take effect in 2021 and is currently due to commence in November 2023. But The Independent has learnt that the electronic border scheme will not now go ahead this year because the database on which it depends will not be ready in time. A formal announcement is expected in June.

Several EU members have expressed alarm at the extra time the new arrival processes will involve, with the Slovenian government warning: “It takes up to four times longer to do the new process.”

The earliest possible date for the checks to be brought in is now believed to be May 2024, but that option is meeting stiff opposition from Paris, which is hosting the summer Olympics from 26 July to 11 August next year.

France is expecting to welcome many tens of thousands of athletes, support staff, officials, media and sports fans for the Games. The organisers do not want any added frontier friction or possible teething problems from EES. A more likely date in 2024 is November, an annual low point for the volume of international travellers.

The postponement will be a huge relief for the Port of Dover, Eurotunnel and Eurostar. When Brexit took effect at the start of 2021, each of those organisations had a hard EU frontier imposed. Due to long-standing agreements, border controls for rail and key ferry links are “juxtaposed” – with French border officials on duty at the UK’s main ferry port, the Folkestone Eurotunnel terminal and London St Pancras station.

Executives have warned that there is currently no feasible solution for the extra operations involved in capturing fingerprints and facial biometrics.