The European Commission officially launched the Entry/Exit System across the European Union on April 10, 2026.
The rollout of the new technology and process support has significantly increased processing times at points of entry and travel delay issues.
As a result, the European Commission has issued a guidance note on May 2, 2026, to declare that national border authorities may temporarily skip the most time-consuming steps—chiefly fingerprint capture—whenever passenger volumes risk overwhelming staffed booths or self-service kiosks.