The EES power to ease biometric checks expired on 7 September, and the Commission will not say what replaced it
Since 13 September, reporting across several European outlets has said that nine Schengen countries — France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland — have been permitted to keep limiting biometric registration at their borders, with no new deadline set. The European Commission has declined to comment. Every version of the story traces back to a single Sunday Times report, and no official announcement confirms it.
What can be established is what the law allowed, and it is considerably narrower than “flexibility”. Under Article 7(3) of Regulation (EU) 2025/1534, once the Entry/Exit System’s progressive rollout ended on 10 April 2026, a member state could suspend biometric registration only partially — all other data still collected — at one named border crossing point, for a maximum of six hours, and only where traffic made waiting times excessive. System failure, which had been a valid ground during the rollout, was not a ground afterwards.
That power no longer exists. Article 7(4) automatically extended the original 90-day window by 60 days, because fewer than 80% of the files registered during the rollout contained biometric data. Article 8(2)(c) then ended both limbs 330 days after the system started operations — 7 September 2026. The extension is already counted in that date, and the regulation contains no mechanism to go further: no implementing acts, no delegated acts, no committee procedure, and no power for the Commission to authorise, waive or extend anything. Its only roles under Article 7 are receiving notifications and verifying one statistic.
Why this matters
For anyone moving in and out of the Schengen area, the practical instruction is to assume full biometric registration at every crossing, because the legal position is unchanged and which booth you reach is not something you can plan around. A rumour is not a basis for booking a tight connection or arriving at an airport at the usual time.
The longer-term risk is the one specific to people living and working across borders. EES replaces passport stamps with an electronic entry and exit record, and that record is what a 90/180-day calculation rests on. If registration is applied unevenly from one border to another, the record becomes patchy — and it is the record, not your recollection, that a consulate or immigration office will read when you apply for residency, renew a permit, or are asked to evidence your movements. Keep your own boarding passes and dated proof of travel, because reconstructing a crossing that was never registered is considerably harder than keeping the evidence at the time.
What to watch
The open question is a narrow one and it deserves an answer: under what provision is biometric registration still being limited? Parliamentary records show no successor instrument — the procedure behind Regulation 2025/1534 is closed with nothing linked after it, and there is no EES derogation file open in 2025 or 2026. The Commission has no new initiative on its register.
One qualification on scope: this concerns only the congestion-based power to suspend biometric registration. Other parts of Regulation 2025/1534 remain in force, including provisions running to October 2026 and to April 2031. The derogation regulation has not expired; a specific and narrow power inside it has.
Anyone relying on an accurate travel record has an interest in knowing which borders are registering it. At present, the institution that could say is not saying.