Although the application of the system at EU borders began to be implemented since November 2025, Brussels announced that the EES will be fully operational at all border crossings, including airports, from April 10th. The system will replace passport stamping with digitally recorded entries, exits, or entry refusals for non-EU citizens coming for short stays. It will also capture passengers' facial images, fingerprints, and personal data from travel documents.
Since the start of the EES operation, over 45 million border crossings have been registered as passengers entered or exited a European country using the system. More than 24,000 people have been denied entry for various reasons, such as inadequate justification for their visit, expired or fraudulent documents.
The system has also helped identify over 600 individuals who posed a security risk to Europe. They were denied entry and recorded in the system. As a result, if they attempt to enter another European country using the system, border authorities will be able to see their previous entry refusals.
Thanks to biometric data collected through the EES, identity fraud is now more easily detected. At each border crossing, passengers' fingerprints and facial images are now checked against biometric data stored in the system.
Schengen countries have reported several cases where passengers attempting to cross borders with different identities were discovered. Recently, in Romania, when border police collected biometric data from one passenger, it was revealed that the same person was using two different identities with two separate documents issued under another name.
Further investigations showed that this person had already been denied entry into the Schengen area three times by different member states. Without biometric identification through the EES, this identity fraud case would likely have remained undetected. These early results confirm the importance of the Entry/Exit System for the security of Europe's external borders.