Nine EU States Delay the New Border System, and the Alpine Crossings Wait

The Guardian reported on 14 September that nine EU countries — among them France, Greece, Portugal and Italy — have asked for more time to implement the Entry/Exit System, the biometric border regime intended to register non-EU visitors as they cross into the Schengen area. The delay was sought by holiday hotspots that feared the checks would snarl busy airports in the middle of the season, according to the paper.

The story is usually told through airports. For the Alps it is a road story. The Valle d'Aosta's two gates to the outside world — the Mont Blanc tunnel toward Chamonix and the Great St Bernard tunnel toward Martigny — are among the busiest transalpine road crossings in Europe, and both carry a heavy share of non-EU traffic, from British second-home owners to long-haul coaches working the Alpine circuit.

The EES is designed to replace passport stamping with a digital record of entry and exit, capturing fingerprints and facial images on first registration. Doing that at a tunnel booth, in a queue of cars and articulated lorries on a two-lane approach, is a different problem from doing it in an airport hall with a dedicated concourse. That is precisely the kind of infrastructure question the Guardian's reporting on the delay leaves open.