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Earlier this month, the EU finally fully implemented its new digital Entry/Exit System (EES). That means that travellers from non-EU countries, including Brits, must now register their fingerprints and facial biometrics at newly installed machines at the border.
But since being fully rolled out on April 10, the tech has led to huge hold-ups across European airports (in one case 122 passengers were left at Milan airport when their flight to Manchester took off without them). Holidaymakers have been warned that the new system could cause delays of up to four hours.
But now, one destination has decided to partly abandon the measures. On the weekend, Greece announced that it would be charting its own course and declared that British passport holders are now exempt from biometric registration at border crossing points.
The decision was revealed by Eleni Skarveli, the director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in the UK, on April 18. She said that the move is intended to ensure ‘a smoother and more efficient arrival experience in Greece’ and will hopefully ‘significantly reduce waiting times and ease congestion at airports’.
Greek border police will still record each entry and exit manually in order to comply with EES data-retention obligations, but without requiring British passengers to register their biometrics. Some travel experts foresee other Mediterranean countries which rely on British tourism following suit.
The machines will scan each passport before taking fingerprints and a photo. After you’ve done that once, you won’t need to register again for three years. They’ll also present each traveller with a series of questions about their trip, like where they plan on staying and whether they have enough money.
The new system also means that later in the year, we’ll need to pay £17.47 for a visa waiver, known as ETIAs, in order to travel to any of the 29 countries in the Schengen Area. Greece hasn’t mentioned whether it’ll scrap the need for this yet.
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