Nine countries demand border relief by September

When the EU launched its digital border system, the assumption was that newer Schengen members would struggle with the technology. Nine months later, the roles have reversed. Croatia, which joined the Schengen free-travel zone only in 2023, says the Entry/Exit System (EES) runs smoothly at its borders. The countries asking Brussels for emergency relief are Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal, plus Switzerland (Euronews, Travel Tomorrow).

EES replaced passport stamps with electronic records for every non-EU traveller entering or leaving the Schengen area. At first registration, border officers capture a facial image and fingerprints (EES Regulation). The system went live in October 2025. EU law created the rules, the EU's IT agency eu-LISA built and runs the shared database, but national border authorities operate the actual checks at each airport, port and land crossing. That three-way split explains everything that followed.

Five Hours at the Gate

That first biometric enrolment takes roughly 60 to 90 seconds per traveller, according to French operational estimates (Le Monde). Multiply that across a summer flight wave, and queues cascade. French airports have reported waits of up to five hours and missed connections (Ouest-France). Berlin Brandenburg saw non-EU passengers waiting up to two hours, according to its CEO Aletta von Massenbach (Berliner Zeitung). Greek island airports handling heavy British tourist traffic face the same crunch (The Guardian).

No comprehensive public data exists on wait times, kiosk uptime or enrolment error rates across Schengen border points. Without it, the "minor teething problems" line and the claims that the system is failing everywhere both rest on anecdotes rather than evidence.

What the Nine Countries Want

The nine countries are not asking to scrap EES. Their request is narrower: extend a grace period, granted by the Commission at launch, that lets border officers pause biometric capture during extreme congestion while still recording entries and exits electronically. That grace period expires on 6 September (Connexion).

The Commission has refused a blanket suspension, arguing that delays reflect national staffing gaps, not a design flaw in the shared system (CNN Greece). Croatia's interior minister Davor Božinović has reinforced that argument, saying his country prepared properly and sees no major problems. For a state that spent years under Schengen scrutiny from older members who questioned its border capacity, the message is pointed: the system works when governments do the homework.

The sharpest critique cuts the other way. Fraport Greece CEO Alexander Zinell called EES fundamentally flawed and argued it needs a full overhaul, including pre-registration before travel rather than processing at the booth (The Guardian, Newsbeast). Greek airports also suffer from not enough trained border staff, a national problem that EES did not cause but sharply exposes (Dnews).

What September Settles

The 6 September deadline forces the Commission's hand. If the grace period expires without extension, every Schengen external-border crossing must run full biometric enrolment at peak volume. If the Commission extends it, biometric capture becomes optional under pressure. That would weaken the core guarantee EES was built to deliver: verified entry-exit records for every non-EU traveller. The disruption has already likely pushed ETIAS, a separate pre-travel authorisation system, into 2027, though the EU's official timeline still says late 2026 (travel-europe.europa.eu, Euronews).

The legal case for EES is strong, and the security logic is clear. Schengen's internal free movement only survives politically if the external border is managed consistently. But the EU wrote one common rule and left delivery to twenty-nine different real airports, ports and border posts. The same regulation produces Zagreb's smooth checks and Paris's five-hour queues. That capacity gap is the problem the Commission now has to answer for.