Europe Explained: What consequences will the EU entry/exit system have on travellers?

Third-country nationals will soon have to scan their fingerprints and have a photograph of their face taken when arriving in the European Union.

European ministers gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for the gradual launch of the EU's digital border management system, known as the entry/exit system (EES), which will register the biometric data of non-European visitors on arrival.

"Europe is thus putting in place the most technologically advanced border management system in the world", declared Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, at a press conference following the Justice and Home Affairs Council.

He stated that this new system would make it possible to strengthen "the effectiveness of border controls," to "detect and prevent crime and terrorist acts" and to "combat illegal migration."

It will apply to third-country nationals travelling to the Schengen area for a total of 90 days within a 180-day period.

No precise launch date has been set, but the European Council is aiming for a gradual launch starting in the autumn.

Julia Behrens, project officer for asylum and migration at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), believes that this electronic system could make it easier for individuals to prove that they are legally on European soil, as stamps on passports can be wrong or illegible and passports can be lost, "which can lead to wrong conclusions, for example that the person has stayed too long" on European soil.

On the other hand, she believes this digital system could pose risks for data protection.

"When biometric data is collected and processed, the individual is always in a situation of power imbalance vis-à-vis the state collecting the data because he or she may not understand