THE European Union has refused to pause the use of new biometric border checks, despite pleas from airport and airlines for a pause during the peak summer season.

The Entry-Exit System(EES) started in April across EU member states causing long delays at some airports, resulting in travellers missing flights.

Budget carrier Ryanair last week referred to ‘queue chaos’ at Spanish airports including Alicante-Elche, Malaga, and Palma.

READ MORE:

• Airlines demand Brussels ‘pause’ EES and warn of five-hour border queues for holidaymakers coming to Spain this summer
• These are the worst airports in Spain for EES border delays, according to Ryanair

An EU spokesperson said the system was fine and blamed airports for inadequate staffing.

“Problems still detected, such as prolonged queues at some airports, are attributed to operational aspects due to the lack of resources allocated by the authorities, and not to technical or security failures of the EES,” he stated.

The EES requires non-EU citizens like those from the United Kingdom to have their fingerprints and faces scanned upon arrival in the passport-free Schengen area, which includes all 27 EU countries except Ireland and Cyprus, plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

The ACI Europe airports group, the A4E association of European airlines, and the International Air Transport Association(Iata) had written an open letter to European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen last week.

Iata said passengers were experiencing ‘delays and missed connections’ in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Belgium.

The organisations wanted the Commission to ‘completely suspend’ EES until September and to establish ‘permanent operational flexibility’ for countries to temporarily shelve the scheme thereafter.

A senior EU official said on Tuesday that a full suspension was neither necessary nor practical.

“The system doesn’t work if you have a full suspension at one of the other entry or exit points”, as border authorities “constantly need to reconcile” people’s entries into and exits from the bloc”, he stated.

He added that the current system already allows member states to temporarily suspend biometric registration for renewable six-hour periods until September.

“Even during the summer period, this provides enough flexibility, which member states are already making use of,” he continued.

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