Further EES Delays ‘Cannot Be Completely Excluded’: European Commission

New details are emerging about the difficulties that some countries are having in implementing the European Union’s planned biometric border system, along with further hints that its activation date will indeed be postponed.

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson and eu-LISA, the EU agency overseeing the infrastructure of the bloc’s biometric Entry-Exit System, had been suggesting that EES would go live on November 10. But a couple of weeks ago, The Guardian reported that Dutch, French, and German officials had written to Johansson warning that they would not be ready for the launch date, citing a lack of field testing.

Now the FT reports that Germany’s main concern is that eu-LISA’s central computer system “still lacks the necessary stability and functionality,” according to a spokesperson. German officials, and their counterparts in France and the Netherlands, “have not yet been able to — and still cannot — implement the final and nationally required tests.”

The European Commission, meanwhile, has now acknowledged that the implementation is “complex” and that “delays cannot be completely excluded.”

It’s a clear signal that November 10 is on the chopping block. And the system’s implementation has already been delayed several times.

It is indeed a complex endeavour. Orchestrated to combat irregular migration and identify individuals who overstay their permitted time in the Schengen Area, the EES applies to both visa-required and visa-exempt non-EU nationals and will cover 29 European countries, including most EU members and some non-EU Schengen countries. The system is designed to store traveler data for up to three years or until the expiration of the individual’s passport, whichever comes first.

The system was originally slated to launch in 2022, with delays leading to subsequent target dates in May of 2023 and then November of 2023, before the delay to this autumn.

Source: Financial Times

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October 1, 2024 – by Alex Perala

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