The European Union has quietly allowed at least nine Schengen countries to delay full enforcement of its new entry-exit system (EES), despite insisting only days earlier that no further extensions would be granted. The climbdown, aimed at "maintaining border fluidity", comes after airlines, airports and ports warned that the biometric checks were causing severe queues and disruption, with technology problems continuing to plague the rollout.

France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland are understood to have told the European Commission they would not fully enforce EES, which requires fingerprints and facial scans from British and other non-EU travellers, until the technology works properly. The scheme began rolling out last October and a 150-day grace period allowing countries to suspend checks expired on 7 September, but persistent software failures — including problems uploading and retrieving scan data — prompted Brussels to informally permit continued flexibility, following lobbying from Ryanair, Eurostar, the UK government and airline body IATA.