British travellers are being urged to prepare for an advanced new security measure being rolled out at a busy Spanish border among other EU borders later this year
Britons travelling to the Schengen area will soon be subject to a new security measure. This year will mark the beginning of a phased rollout of the European Commission’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which is meant to replace traditional passport checks at EU borders.
While no dates have been confirmed, Majorca is advising Britons to prepare for the introduction of the new biometric system. Non-EU travellers will be required to register their biometric data with passport control officers—including facial and fingerprint recognition—the first time they enter the EU after the new system is in place.
The EES will record and store the following in a digital file:
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data listed in your travel document(s) (e.g. full name, date of birth, etc.)
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date and place of each entry and exit
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facial image and fingerprints (called ‘biometric data’)
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whether you were refused entry.
EU travellers who already hold a short-stay visa to enter the Schengen area will already have their fingerprints stored in the Visa Information System (VIS) and will not have it stored again in the EES. After the initial biometric recording, passport control officers will only verify (as opposed to collect) your fingerprints and photo. The EES was conceived as a result of Brexit with the goal of increasing the efficiency of border management, better identifying travellers who have exceeded their permitted stay and better preventing irregular immigration and terrorist offences.
The EES was meant to be implemented across EU borders last November, but the launch was postponed due to concerns about readiness raised by Germany and France.
While the initial collection of biometric data is bound to cause a queue when EES eventually launches, the European Union advises that the process can be quicker if you register some of your data in advance.
You can do this by using:
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the dedicated equipment (“self-service system”), if available at your border crossing point; and/or
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a mobile application – if made available by the country of arrival or departure.
The EES will store individual files containing personal data for 3 years and 1 day from the date of your last exit (or refusal of entry) into the EU. According to official guidelines, the data stored in the EES is protected against abuse and access is restricted to specific staff within national authorities.
What rights do you have as regards to your personal data?
Anyone refusing to provide biometric data will be denied entry into the EES-protected country.
But you do have the right to:
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Request from the controller access to data relating to you
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Request that inaccurate or incomplete data is corrected
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Request that unlawfully processed personal data that concern you is erased and/or request that specific data are not processed
Again, there is no set date for the launch of the EES system in Majorca or any other EU border. However, the system is scheduled to be introduced sometime this year.
