Italy and Portugal Follow Greece in Suspending EU Border Checks for UK Tourists

Portugal and Italy volition travel Greece successful its example. Credit: Greek Reporter

Greece’s caller determination to suspend the European Union’s Entry/Exit System (EES) for UK tourists is triggering a domino effect crossed Mediterranean vacation destinations.

Portugal and Italy are present preparing to wantonness the caller biometric checks to forestall terrible airdrome delays and support their tourism sectors up of the engaged summertime season.

Greece archetypal to scrap controls for UK tourists

The Greek authorities led the question by officially pausing the EES rules for UK nationals until September. Following a rollout wide criticized arsenic disorganized, Athens intervened to bypass the mandatory facial scans and fingerprinting for non-EU citizens. The Greek Embassy successful London confirmed that arsenic of April 10, British passport holders are wholly exempt from biometric registration astatine each Greek borderline crossing points.

This strategical determination safeguards a captious gross stream. British tourists inject astir €3.5 cardinal into the Greek system annually. In 2025 alone, 4.89 cardinal UK nationals visited the country, representing a 7.6 percent summation from the erstwhile year. The Greek National Tourism Organization noted the exemption guarantees smoother arrivals, maintaining Greece’s competitory borderline against rival hotspots.

Those rivals are present responding. Fearing that Greece volition sorb a larger stock of the lucrative UK market, Portugal has begun waving passengers done migration erstwhile queues go unmanageable. Industry sources bespeak Italy volition instrumentality a akin argumentation earlier the May schoolhouse holidays, allowing UK tourists to participate utilizing accepted passport stamps. Travel experts foretell Spain, France, and Croatia whitethorn soon follow akin workarounds, perchance causing the EES model to illness entirely.

What is the caller system

The EES became afloat operational past period crossed 25 Schengen states, positive Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Designed to fortify outer borderline management, the strategy mandates biometric information postulation for third-country nationals. However, the archetypal motorboat had terrible method issues with member-states having important unit shortages, resulting successful monolithic airdrome bottlenecks.

Travel manufacture leaders person fiercely criticized the EU initiative. Ryanair Chief Executive Neil McMahon urged the EU to suspend the checks until September, describing the rollout arsenic a half-baked IT strategy deployed during the busiest question period. McMahon noted that passengers are enduring hours-long queues and missing flights.

Analysts suggest that if aggregate EU subordinate states collectively disregard the EES requirements, the European Commission volition person small applicable recourse, arsenic the fiscal benefits of dependable tourism postulation acold outweigh immoderate imaginable regulatory penalties. For now, the Association of British Travel Agents advises travelers to utilize the EES mobile app to pre-register information wherever the strategy remains active.