EU to postpone prior travel authorization system after border chaos

2026-07-07 10:22:27, Kosova & Bota CNA

A new online system for prior authorisation of entry into the European Union is set to be delayed until next year, after the chaotic implementation of another electronic border control system caused problems for travellers visiting the bloc.

About 1.4 billion travelers who do not need a visa to enter the EU — including citizens of the United Kingdom and the United States — will have to register through the European Travel Information and Authorization System, known as ETIAS, which is similar to the American ESTA system. Applicants will pay 20 euros and undergo security checks before traveling.

Discussions about postponing ETIAS come after technical problems and slow implementation of the bloc's new electronic entry-exit system, the EES, which requires travelers from outside the EU to have their fingerprints and facial images scanned at its borders. The problems have caused long queues at some airports and land border crossings, and prompted warnings from the aviation industry of a chaotic summer.

EU-LISA, the agency responsible for implementing ETIAS, has admitted that putting it into operation by the end of this year, as planned, is no longer feasible, according to three people briefed on the matter.

The EU-Lisa board met in mid-June to discuss postponing the system to a later date, the people said. Two of them said the board will meet again in September to discuss a new deadline.

A spokesman for the agency confirmed that on June 17, the board discussed the “operationalization” of ETIAS. “Since then, there have been no further developments on this issue,” he added.

The European Commission is responsible for setting the launch date of the system, which it can only do after EU-LISA has successfully tested ETIAS.

A person briefed on the discussions said there were “still some IT issues” with ETIAS. “Let’s fix the EES first, before we put in another system that will double the queues again,” he said.

The EU’s home affairs commissioner, Magnus Brunner, wrote to airline executives, blaming national governments for the situation surrounding the entry-exit system. “Other factors — unrelated to the EES — such as a lack of sufficient staff or adequate infrastructure could be the cause of the delays,” Brunner said in the letter first seen by the Financial Times.

The EES was initially scheduled to become operational in 2022, but was postponed several times due to procurement problems, technical difficulties and slow implementation in some member states.

"Preparations for the launch of ETIAS are ongoing. Of course, as with any large-scale information technology system, many factors are taken into account when deciding when it will be launched," a European Commission spokesperson said.

Some EU officials said they were not surprised that EU-Lisa, which in addition to ETIAS also manages the EES and several other border systems, was struggling to meet the deadline. One official said the delay was unlikely to be long. “If they can’t do it, then they will say they need another quarter or another month,” he said.

However, another person familiar with the matter said that launching the system within this year was "illusory."/ Monitor