UK holidaymakers will notice changes at airports and other border checkpoints later this year as a new process for entering EU countries is introduced.
The changes come as part of a new European Union-wide set of policies that are due to come into force from November which affects UK passport holders. They are designed to measure and control how long travellers from outside the EU - including those from the UK - are allowed to stay in the Schengen Area, which comprises all 27 EU countries.
While British tourists have had to have their passports stamped when travelling to Europe since the UK left the EU, this will no longer happen when these changes come into force, The Mirror reports. Instead, passport-reading machines at external points of the Schengen Area will replace manual passport stamping in a move towards check-point digitisation.
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Dubbed the Entry-Exit System (EES), travellers will need to scan their passports or other travel documents at an automated self-service kiosk prior to crossing the border. Initially due to launch in 2022, the new policy was delayed until May 2023 before being delayed again until November.
European Commission’s department for Migration and Home Affairs said: "EES will replace the current system of manual stamping of passports, which is time consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings and does not allow a systematic detection of overstayers."
The system will log the following information for every traveller:
- Facial image
- Surname or family name
- First name or given names
- Date and place of birth
- Nationality or nationalities
- Gender
- Passport number, date and country of issuance as well as the expiry date
- Valid ETIAS or Schengen visa along with its duration and/or validity
- Travel information including the visitor’s points and dates of entries and exits, as well as overstays within the Schengen Zone
- Fingerprints
The 27 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
In order to travel to these Schengen Area countries, UK passport holders will also need to obtain travel authorisation online through the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) when it is introduced in November. This authorisation, which lasts for three years, is expected to cost €7 for all travellers between the ages of 18 and 70.
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