'Lot of work' needed to resolve Europe's border travel woes, EU chief admits

European airports and airlines warned this week that the new Entry/Exit System (EES) was causing wait times of up to five hours, urging the EU to act now to prevent summer travel chaos.

Pressed on the matter, the European Commission chief acknowledged the rollout of the scheme -- introduced last year to register non-EU travellers entering the 27-nation bloc -- was far from perfect.

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"There's still quite a lot of work to do to have these technical issues solved together with the member states," she said.

The new system replaces manual passport stamping and records travellers' personal and biometric data to track overstays and refusals of entry.

The EES is used by EU countries -- with the exception of Ireland and Cyprus -- and other nations that are part of the Schengen free movement area, including Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.

Since October 2025, 108 million people have entered or exited the EU with this new system -- with 44,000 people prevented entry, the vast majority for lack of the right travel document or visa, an EU official said.

Airlines and airports have called for countries to be able to fully suspend the new checks during periods of heavy traffic -- with European airports expect to handle up to 40 million additional passengers over the summer holidays.

The appeal was backed jointly by the ACI Europe airports group, the A4E association of European airlines, and the International Air Transport Association bringing together more than 360 airlines from around the world.

The commission was due to meet with industry representatives on July 7 to take stock of the situation, an EU official said.

But Brussels has also pushed back at the criticism, describing the impact in most European airports as limited and noting that the bloc's member states had agreed to the reform.

"If you're unhappy, then join the Schengen area," the EU official said.