Nine EU States Win More Time on Border Checks as Italy Joins the Delay

Nine European Union countries have secured a further postponement of the bloc's new entry-exit system (EES), the Guardian reported on Monday, with France, Greece, Portugal and Italy among the states asking Brussels for more time to bring the biometric border checks into service at airports already stretched by summer traffic. The EES is designed to register non-EU visitors' fingerprints and facial images at the point of crossing, replacing passport stamping.

The delay is the latest in a series for a programme that has slipped repeatedly since it was first scheduled. Holiday hotspots, the Guardian notes, argued that rolling out the kiosks and registration lanes during peak season risked queues and confusion for travellers who have not yet been enrolled.

For a country such as Italy, whose airports at Rome, Milan and the smaller regional fields handle a heavy share of non-EU arrivals, the practical question is staffing and space rather than principle. The Guardian's account frames the request as operational, not political: governments say they support the system but need the calendar to fit the terminals.