Yann Leriche, chief executive of Getlink, has a blunt diagnosis for why Europe’s new biometric border regime is still not running end to end at the Channel Tunnel. The problem, he says, is not the terminals, the staff, or the queues, it is the code.
Getlink, which operates the Eurotunnel shuttle carrying cars and lorries between Folkestone and Calais, warned on Thursday that unresolved software problems in the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) could delay the rollout of biometric checks for passenger vehicles. The caution came alongside the company’s half-year results.
“I’m not going to tell you that we aren’t experiencing any difficulties at all, because there’s one issue that affects us all and for which there is no obvious immediate solution: the software provided by the European Union,” Leriche told reporters.
The system, he added, “was not yet fully stable”.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The EES is the bloc’s long-delayed digital border, designed to log every non-EU traveller entering or leaving the Schengen area by recording facial images, fingerprints, and passport data in place of a manual stamp.
