The European Commission confirmed late on 2 May that member states may temporarily suspend fingerprint- and facial-capture requirements of the new Entry/Exit System (EES) when queues exceed predetermined thresholds. The clarification follows reports of hour-long lines and dozens of missed connections at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, Marseille and Nice since the system became fully operational on 10 April. Under the ‘built-in flexibility’ mechanism, border officers can revert to manual passport stamping while continuing to log travellers’ data electronically. Crucially, the central EES database remains live, so overstays will still be detected; only the biometric step may be skipped during peaks. France, Belgium, Italy and Greece had jointly lobbied for a summer-long suspension, warning that under-staffed booths could derail the tourist season. Brussels stopped short of that request but offered what Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called “a pressure valve that will save our hub operations in July and August.” Airlines operating at French gateways welcomed the move. Air France estimates that biometric capture adds 45–90 seconds per non-EU passenger; on a single wide-body arrival that can translate into an extra hour at passport control. Corporate travel managers have been advising assignees to allow three-hour minimum connections at CDG; the new guidance may eventually allow that buffer to return to two hours if data show queues stabilising. However, compliance risks remain. Non-EU business travellers on single-entry Schengen visas could find their passports stamped twice—once manually and once electronically—complicating 90-day-rule calculations. Mobility teams should double-check exit records through the French ANEF portal and advise staff to retain boarding passes in case of contested overstays. Looking ahead, the Commission says it will review usage statistics weekly and may withdraw flexibility after 30 September. Work is also accelerating on the ETIAS travel authorisation, now slated to go live in October 2026, which should pre-screen many passengers and lighten airport workloads.
Source: Observ’Algérie
