Nine EU countries have written to the European Commission warning that the bloc is not ready to fully implement its new post-Brexit border system, the Entry-Exit System (EES), and urging further easing to avoid queues of five hours or more. The intervention matters because it comes just before the "Great Summer Getaway", when many UK schools break up next weekend, raising fears of severe travel disruption for holidaymakers crossing between the UK and the EU.

The signatories included Germany and France — notable because they are the bloc's leading powerbrokers and Paris rarely breaks from the Brussels line — alongside Switzerland, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal, all with sizeable tourism industries. The letter, sent to home affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner, cited "significant difficulties" in rolling out the EES. easyJet chief executive Kenton Jarvis backed the rebellion, calling for a review and branding recent border queues "completely unacceptable", and said the new rules now account for more than a third of delays on UK-EU flights. Passengers reportedly faced three-hour queues at Milan Linate in April.