What are the new EU border checks and how will they affect your summer holiday?

Travellers entering the European Union are facing severe delays as the new digital Entry and Exit System (EES) causes queues of up to five hours, prompting airlines and airports to call for its suspension during the peak summer holiday period [1]. The EES, which launched last October and has been fully operational since April, requires non-EU citizens to have their faces photographed and fingerprints scanned upon entering the Schengen area [1]. The Schengen zone comprises 25 of the 27 EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland [1]. The checks apply to anyone who is not a citizen of one of the 29 Schengen countries, Ireland or Cyprus, and will eventually replace the manual stamping of passports by border officials [1]. Border control measures are designed to monitor and regulate the movement of people, but they carry high economic costs; one estimate suggests the indirect cost of such controls runs into many trillions of dollars [2]. The rollout has been plagued by operational difficulties. At Lisbon airport, waits reached seven hours late last year, forcing a temporary suspension of the system [1]. In April, around 100 people were stranded in Milan after a flight to Manchester departed without them because border checks created queues lasting up to three hours [1]. Last month, passengers missed a flight from Athens to Luton, triggering angry scenes [1]. In an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, travel industry groups including ACI Europe, Airlines 4 Europe and the International Air Transport Association said the situation had “reached a critical point” [1]. ACI Europe’s president, Stefan Schulte, said politicians should “stop pretending … that EES is working just fine. It is not.” [1]. The groups are requesting a suspension of the system for the peak summer months [1]. In May, French police temporarily relaxed the checks at the port of Dover under a clause in the EES regulations after thousands of holidaymakers faced long delays in hot weather [1]. Passengers have been advised to arrive up to three hours before their flight, but the Association of British Insurers has stated that travel insurance is unlikely to cover losses caused by EES delays [1]. Admiral Insurance confirmed it would not reimburse customers for such delays [1]. The travel company Kayak notes that under EU regulations, airlines can classify border delays as extraordinary circumstances, potentially avoiding compensation payments [1]. One family who missed an easyJet flight from Málaga due to long queues paid an extra £1,000 for new flights [1]. The EU’s internal single market is built on the free movement of people, goods, services and capital, with passport controls abolished for travel within the Schengen Area [7].