New European travel rules given cold shoulder by British travellers

A new survey by the British government has shown that one in seven Briton are less likely to travel to Mallorca and the rest of the European Union once the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) officially enters into force. Under the new system British passport holders who want to enter the Schengen Area will have to take a photo and provide their fingerprints and passport details to complete the registration process.

According to the Department for Transport of the UK, a total of 1,584 Britons over the age of 16 were polled on EES. Of the total number of people who took part in the survey, 15 per cent said that the EES would make them reconsider their travel plans to the European Union, Schengen.News reports.

As the Independent explains, another 20 per cent of the Brits polled said they would postpone or cancel their ferry trip to the EU if the system causes delays of more than an hour. In addition to the above-mentioned, the survey revealed that one of the main concerns of Brits remains the queueing to register in the system.

The EU’s new Entry/Exit System is set to launch on October 6 of this year, with the system replacing the manual passport stamping.

Once the system becomes operational, UK passport holders who want to enter the Schengen Area will have to take a photo and provide their fingerprints and passport details. The data will then be stored in the database for a three-year period and will be used to keep track of people who enter and leave the Schengen Area.