The EU’s troubled Entry/Exit System (EES) has created a regulatory patchwork for UK hauliers, with nine Schengen countries given the green light to delay full biometric border checks beyond the deadline, which expired on 6 September.
France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Switzerland are understood to have agreed with the European Commission that they will not fully enforce the new biometric checks until the technology and systems are working correctly. A new deadline for the nine has yet to be announced.
The EES is the EU’s digital border-management system for recording the movements of non-EU nationals began a phased rollout on 12 October 2025 across 29 European countries
The system replaces the manual stamping of passports with an electronic and biometric record of entries, exits and refusals of entry and is designed to strengthen external border security, identify overstayers and reduce identity and document fraud.
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