Earlier this week, The Times reported France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland have all been told they will not need to enforce the EU Entry-Exit System (EES) until the technology and systems that underpin it are working correctly.
EES requires arrivals into EU nations from third-countries, like the UK after Brexit, to submit to biometric checks; these include a facial scan and having their fingerprints taken.
Matthew Pack, Chief Executive of Holiday Extras, is now asking – if nine countries covering most of Europe's tourism have just been quietly told they can keep delaying it with no deadline in sight, why not just turn the whole thing off?
Pack, who says his own family was caught up in delays over the summer, said: “I called this a fiasco last week and, credit where it's due, nine EU governments appear to agree with me. They just can't quite bring themselves to say so out loud.
“Officially, the EES is proceeding as planned. Unofficially, most of the continent has just been quietly waved through a side door marked ‘maintaining border fluidity’, which is EU speak for ‘please don't ask us about this again’.
“The idea may have looked sensible on paper, but in practice the cost now far outweighs the benefit.”
He added: “In business, when the evidence shows that a solution is creating more problems than it solves, you stop and reassess. The EU should revisit the intended benefit, examine the true cost and redesign the system around the realities of travel – not keep forcing through a rollout for which nobody seems willing to take responsibility.”
"If a system needs this many countries quietly waved out of doing it properly, it isn't a rollout that needs patience. It's a system that needs turning off, admitting it didn't work, and rebuilding properly."