What is the ETIAS and How Will it Change European Travel in 2024?

Understanding the ETIAS, EES and the Schengen Zone

by Leyla Alyanak

Visiting Europe has often been a rite of passage, made easier by borderless travel, rail passes, and a 90-day unquestioned permission to stay.

Only 90 days? For some, that was simply not enough, so visitors became creative, finding loopholes that allowed them to overstay.

Some of these involved visiting a non-EU country for a few weeks, or simply ignoring the stamp in their passport and trying to sneak across one of the “less strict” borders along Europe’s southern periphery. There were heavy fines, even travel bans to Europe, but none of that mattered. For those desperate to extend their European trip, it was still worth a try – but soon it will no longer be. Once the Paris Olympic games are over, two new electronic surveillance schemes will make sure everyone leaves the EU on time, and that they have the right paperwork to boot.

The Entry/Exit System, or EES

The first of these is the EES, or Entry/Exit System. The colourful passport stamps we’ve grown to love and collect will be replaced by a biometric face scan and fingerprinting. So much for the romance of smudged ink on our passport pages, reminding us of our past adventures…

At first sight, this might not seem like a big deal – similar systems are already in place in many countries. But privacy is a growing concern, as is the increasing electronic oversight of every step we take.

According to the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, “The system will register the person’s name, type of the travel document, biometric data (fingerprints and captured facial images) and the date and place of entry and exit, in full respect of fundamental rights and data protection.” 

That last sentence sounds fine on paper, but as we know only too well, it’s not about the information but about how it’s used. In fairness, many European governments have been concerned about illegal immigration and about terrorism, so tightening up border controls is probably a logical step.