Nine EU States Delay EES Border Checks as Alpine Crossings Wait

Nine European Union countries have further delayed the introduction of the Entry/Exit System, the biometric border regime meant to register non-EU travellers, according to the Guardian. France, Greece, Portugal and Italy are among the governments that asked for more time to install the equipment at busy airports and land crossings.

The EES replaces manual passport stamping with fingerprint and facial-image registration for short-stay visitors from outside the bloc. Its rollout has already slipped more than once, and the latest postponement extends the uncertainty for the transport operators and border authorities who must build the infrastructure.

For the Valle d'Aosta, the practical question sits at Mont Blanc and the Great St Bernard, the two road corridors that carry the region's cross-border traffic into France and Switzerland. Those are among the frontiers where the new system will eventually have to function.

The Guardian reported that the delay was requested by holiday hotspots including France and Greece, which cited pressure on busy airports. Portugal and Italy appear on the list of states seeking more time. The Commission has not set a firm new date in the coverage, leaving national authorities to prepare on their own timetables.

The system is a Schengen instrument, so it applies to the internal and external frontiers of participating states alike. Travellers who currently cross at Mont Blanc or the Great St Bernard with a stamped passport will eventually be registered biometrically on entry and exit. The delay buys time for the kiosks, cameras and database links that each crossing needs.

Separately, the European Commission is weighing a revision of Schengen short-stay visa rules and fees, according to The Local Italy, aiming for a policy it describes as more coherent, secure and effective while facilitating legitimate travel. The two files touch the same travellers: visa holders and visa-exempt visitors alike would face the new registration.

The Alps sit on one of the busiest north-south corridors in Europe, and the Mont Blanc tunnel is a fixed-capacity link with no realistic alternative for heavy traffic. Any change to how vehicles and passengers are processed at the French side of the tunnel has consequences for queueing on the Italian approach. The wire coverage does not quantify those effects, and the timing of implementation remains open.

What the foreign reporting makes clear is procedural rather than local: the EU's border modernisation is being staged, not abandoned, and the states that asked for delay are the ones with the most traffic to lose. Until a new date is fixed, the crossings that serve this valley operate under the existing regime.