“Real risk” – Malta to be suspended from Schengen for failing to implement passport control system – Agius

Former nationalist candidate for the European Parliament Peter Agius has said there is a “real risk” of Malta being excluded from the Schengen Area due to its failure to implement a new passport control system, known as the Entry/Exit System, EES.
Agius said he had requested an informal meeting with the European Commission, which informed him that there was a “real risk” of Malta being excluded from the Schengen Area because it still lacked the required electronic fingerprint and passport verification system.
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“It seems that our country has postponed the implementation of this European law, which was agreed six years ago, until the last minute,” he said. “Until a few days ago, there was no contact to ensure the acquisition of the required equipment for the airport.”
Agius said the Commission had informed him that the government was setting up a temporary manual passport control system and that this would prevent Malta from being suspended from the Schengen area in October. However, the system could be bureaucratic and time-consuming.
“All of this indicates a lack of seriousness. The freedoms and rights that we have gained through our accession to the European Union require that the Maltese government does its part,” he said. “We have never been in a situation where our freedom of movement within the Schengen Area was threatened because government entities did not complete their work on time.”
He concluded by saying that this was a “matter of national importance” and that the government had a duty to inform citizens about developments that affected our rights.
More about EES
The EES is a new electronic system that is intended to replace the physical stamping of passports during passport control upon arrival. All EU Member States, except Cyprus and Ireland, where passports will continue to be stamped manually, and all four non-EU Schengen countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – will participate in the EES.
Under the EES, once the system is up and running, you will need to show your passport as normal when you arrive in your new country. Additionally, a photo of your face will be taken and your fingerprints will be scanned electronically.
The EES will replace the current method of manually stamping passports, which the European Commission says is time-consuming, error-prone and does not allow for systematic detection of overstayers or response to security threats such as terrorism and serious crime.