Greece skips biometric scans

Greece is not taking fingerprints or facial scans from British passport holders at its Schengen borders, even though the European Union’s Entry/Exit System is now fully live. (independent.co.uk) The Entry/Exit System, or EES, became fully operational across Schengen countries on 10 April 2026 after a phased rollout that began on 12 October 2025. The European Commission says the system replaces passport stamps with digital records for short-stay non-European Union travellers and is designed to record a traveller’s facial image, fingerprints and passport data. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu 1) (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu 2) For most British travellers entering the Schengen area, the UK government says the first registration under EES can involve biometric checks, with fingerprints and a face image taken and stored digitally. The UK’s travel advice for Greece also says British citizens can still visit visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. (gov.uk 1) (gov.uk 2) That makes Greece an outlier in the way British tourists meet the new border rules, especially on holiday routes into islands such as Corfu, Crete and Rhodes, where Simon Calder reported that no fingerprints were being required. The practical effect is a faster, simpler arrival process for one of Greece’s biggest visitor markets. (independent.co.uk) (gov.uk) The stakes are large for Greece’s tourism economy. Bank of Greece data show travel receipts reached €21.7 billion in 2024, and receipts from visitors from the United Kingdom rose 32.7% year over year in December 2024 to €27.6 million. (bankofgreece.gr) Brussels has presented EES as a security and migration-control tool, not just a new passenger-processing system. The Commission said on 30 March that more than 45 million border crossings had already been registered during the rollout and that the database had helped identify more than 600 people considered security risks. (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) EU institutions have also said biometric matching helps detect identity fraud and spot overstayers automatically, which is why fingerprints and facial images were built into the system in the first place. The Council of the European Union says EES was created to digitize border checks for non-EU nationals making short stays in the Schengen area. (consilium.europa.eu) (home-affairs.ec.europa.eu) For British holidaymakers, the immediate result is narrower than the politics around Europe’s digital borders: Greece is offering a different arrival experience from the one many travellers were told to expect when EES went fully live on 10 April. (gov.uk) (independent.co.uk)