Problems that appeared already at the beginning of the summer season: waiting at the borders lasting up to five hours, technical failures of the biometric kiosks, and the lack of staff and infrastructure at several border crossings. The Netherlands and Italy did not even fulfill the requirement that all border crossings be equipped with EES technology. The pre-registration application developed by Frontex was, according to available data, usable only in Sweden. Several days of outages of the entire system were also recorded, mainly due to problems at the level of national, not central, components.
This case is nothing new
Brussels comes up with an ambitious legal and technical framework, and the member states then have to implement it with a capacity that is not equal to it. Similar examples include:
GDPR and the cookie consent system: regulation due to the protection of user data in practice is mostly reduced to formal clicking without any real impact on the scope of data collection. ETIAS, online registration before the trip, a system that is directly connected to the EES, has been postponed several times precisely because of the assessment that the organizational readiness does not follow the legislative deadlines. A project like eIDAS, the EU regulation establishing a common legal framework for electronic identification, electronic signature and other electronic trust services, is not yet operational. Digital Euro: the regulation is completed well before the infrastructure for its full implementation is ready.
Common in these cases is the difference between the level at which decisions are made and the level at which these decisions are implemented. European institutions write regulations and directives, and individual border crossings, national agencies and local infrastructure are never completely ready. The ability to implement decisions synchronously, not a lack of technical knowledge, is the cause of many European problems.
The issue of data protection
On the other hand, even if the system were to function, EES also opens up issues related to data protection. The system relies on a shared biometric infrastructure (sBMS) that connects the EES, VIS (a database that stores information and biometric data, fingerprints and photographs, on all Schengen visa applications), ETIAS (a system of online prior authorization for travelers who do not need a short-stay Schengen visa) and Eurodac (a database of fingerprints of asylum seekers and persons caught illegally crossing the external border of the EU). Thus, fingerprints and facial images become available to law enforcement agencies, with the data being retained for up to five years in case of irregular residence.
German lawmaker Clara Buenger described the system as a form of mass surveillance that blurs the line between migration policy and criminal prosecution, while critics warn of a lack of mechanism by which an individual can challenge the proportionality of data retention.
The industry warns
Industry associations such as A4E, ACI Europe and IATA have jointly warned the European Commission that the system has reached a critical point and requested the possibility of temporary suspension during periods of peak traffic. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that delays could jeopardize up to 41 million arrivals and $45.4 billion in tourist spending.