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We've all heard stories about the arrival of... for years. EES systema (Entry/Exit System). For years!
The deadlines for introducing this mass biometric scanning at the EU's external borders have been pushed back and forth indefinitely. First 2022, then 2023, then 2024 so as not to disrupt the Paris Olympics, and after all the compromises, the system finally became fully mandatory in April 2026.
Each member state had and more than enough time. They had years of pure technical preparation to acquire scanners, set up kiosks, hire and train people and prepare for the new reality in which travelers from third countries must leave fingerprints and face scans.
And what do we have today, on the threshold of the real summer peak in 2026? We have panic, dramatic appeals and the search for an alibi.
Rome declares a "catastrophe" and demands that the valves be opened
The latest in a series of shocks arrives from Italy, and the situation was exposed in detail by a prominent person Financial Times. The first man of the company that manages Rome's Fiumicino and Ciampino airports, Marco Troncone, publicly in an interview for Financial Times declared that the system was "incompatible with the peak traffic volumes we are facing." The man rated his concerns for this summer at an eight or nine on a scale of one to ten and offered a "life-saving" solution: temporarily suspend EES checks and, I quote, "open the valve"In other words, let people go without registering to avoid chaos.
Interestingly, it was his responsibility to make the system work.
The European Airports Association is also beating the same drum. ACI EuropeAs reported by the expert portal Aviation Week, the association's president Stefan Schulte told European authorities to "stop pretending that the EES is working just fine, because it's not," openly asking governments to use the system's built-in flexibility and allow controls to be suspended so that airports don't become completely clogged.
The aviation sector and tour operators, led by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), are now aggressively lobbying to extend this legal loophole - which is intended only as a short-term exit in an emergency for a few hours, to the entire summer season.
Before Rome, we saw a similar scenario with Greece.
For months, the Greek authorities promised British tour operators under the table that their guests would have "fast-track" treatment and that their biometric data would not be taken over the summer. Pure marketing and an attempt to hunt in the dark. When Brussels slammed its fist on the table and explained that the European regulation does not recognize exceptions based on one's citizenship, the Greeks had to fold their tails and shamefully admit: "oops, we were joking, you still have to join the ranks".
Crowds are not a surprise, but a mathematical constant
Let's be completely honest: crowds at borders and airports during the summer peak are completely expected and logical. Anyone who understands tourist traffic knows what happens when ten buses with hundreds of tourists arrive at a border crossing all at once and have to go through biometric scanning. We know what happens when several large, wide-body aircraft such as Airbus or Boeing land on an airport runway within half an hour of each other, creating an immediate pressure of thousands of people for the system to process.
This is not a force majeure event or a technical failure of the system, but a predictable reality. But there is a very clear reason for this reality. operational solution which serious countries and airports have long implemented: expand capacities on time, define a clear flow of passenger movement, set up a sufficient number of biometric kiosks and accurately predict where your critical crowding points will be.
There was time, there is no letting up
Let the aforementioned, or any other, countries now, under the pretext of ""Let's save the tourist season", see through their fingers and carry out controls, it sets a dangerous and unacceptable precedent. When the director of Rome's airports publicly admits that they cannot deliver 100 percent of registrations, it is not a criticism of the European Union or the software. It is a public acknowledgment of one's own frivolity, indolence and operational inefficiency.
Giving in to those who have been sleeping for years literally collapses the entire system and "spits" in the face of those countries, airports and border crossings that have invested millions, reorganized their business and arrived in April ready. If Italy, Greece or anyone else is not prepared, the solution must not be to suspend the rules.
There was more than enough time, the deadlines have been moving for years and there is simply no room for new concessions. If they have not prepared, the states and their airports should be radically and rigorously punished. If your airport can't process passengers because you ignored deadlines for five years, then let your passengers wait in lines for six hours, let planes be late and let your tourist traffic fail.
It may sound cruel, but it is the only way to teach national bureaucracies to be responsible. If we allow them, under the pressure of summer crowds, to tear down the common rules of safety just because they were lazy, then no software, digitization or common rules of Europe will ever help us again.
The rules in tourism and safety must apply equally to everyone or this entire European system makes absolutely no sense.
