The European Union is set to launch a new method of recording movement across the borders of Schengen countries, known as the Entry/Exit System, EES, starting November 10.
Which citizens will it apply to
These changes will affect citizens of third countries who visit the Schengen area for a short period. The innovation will not affect citizens of the EU, Schengen states, or persons with a residence permit or long-term visa type D.
How will border control be carried out for travelers
The procedure after the launch of the EES will look like this.
- At the first border crossing, a border guard will take a photo of the traveler's face, take his fingerprints and enter the passport details into the EES. The type of passport (biometric or regular) does not matter.
- The check will be faster at subsequent crossings. Holders of biometric passports will be able to use automatic terminals if they are available at the border point. If there are no automatic terminals or if the passport is not biometric, the officer will check the data himself.
- Sometimes, when re-entering, they may take a photo and fingerprints again, but the details of such cases are not specified.
It is not yet known what the application will look like, and the stands will most likely not be installed at all checkpoints.
What will happen to the marks in foreign passports
With the introduction of EES, border crossing stamps will no longer be placed in passports, since all information about entries and exits will be stored in the electronic system along with personal data.
Purpose of the system implementation
EES will allow the border services of the European Union to quickly exchange data. The EU believes that this mechanism will help identify irregular migrants, people with false documents and those who violate the rules of stay in the Schengen area, for example, by exceeding the authorized stay of a C visa (90 days in a 180-day period).
Statistics on violations
Statistics on visa violations in the European Union show that hundreds of thousands of violations of stay in the EU occur every year.
Here are the main indicators of visa violations:
- According to the European Union Agency for External Border Protection (Frontex), around 330,000 irregular border crossings were recorded in 2022.
- The main routes of irregular migration include the Eastern Mediterranean (via Turkey and Greece), the Western Mediterranean (via Morocco and Spain) and the Balkan route.
- In 2021, around 9,400 cases of using false documents were detected when trying to cross the EU borders.
- More than 600,000 cases of overstaying in the Schengen area on a type C visa occurred in 2021.
- The largest number of such violations occurred in major tourist and business centers such as Germany, France and Italy.
The new rules will only apply at the external borders of the Schengen area, i.e. when entering and leaving the area. When traveling to EU countries outside the Schengen area, such as Ireland and Cyprus, passports will continue to be stamped as usual.