Details emerging from an 8 July Agence Europe bulletin show that the European Commission is dangling fresh Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) funding to help member-state airports – including Aéroports de Paris – buy additional electronic gates and deploy the new EES pre-registration app. Commission spokespeople told airlines that current delays stem less from the central system than from local infrastructure shortfalls when “too many flights arrive simultaneously”. The funding pitch is designed to blunt industry criticism ahead of the July exodus and to avoid calls for a wider EES suspension. Flexibility already exists to pause fingerprint collection when waits become excessive, but Brussels rejected extending that derogation beyond September. Instead, it urged operators to tap BMVI grants swiftly for hardware and staffing. For French hub managers, the announcement provides a political green light – and part-EU financing – to accelerate roll-out of next-generation PARAFE gates capable of handling the dual-biometric capture EES requires.
Source: Agence Europe
