US EditionGreece defies EU to scrap fingerprint checks for British travellers
British passport holders will keep manual passport checks as Greece seeks to cut airport queues and ease delays of up to four hours, officials said.
- On Friday, Eleni Skarveli, director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in the UK, announced British passport holders are exempt from biometric registration at Greek borders, ensuring a "smoother and more efficient arrival experience in Greece."
- Since April 10, the European Union has required biometric checks for third-country nationals at Schengen area frontiers, but officials in Athens opted to bypass these rules for British visitors to avoid airport chaos observed elsewhere.
- Ms Skarveli told The Independent that the entry process remains unchanged, involving only a passport glimpse and stamp, contrasting with the new Entry Exit System requiring fingerprints and facial biometrics across 29 Schengen countries.
- By bypassing these requirements, Greece expects to "significantly reduce waiting times and ease congestion at airports," reflecting the country's economic reliance on British tourists who outnumber all other third-country nationals visiting the region.
- Observers suggest Greece has "stolen a march on her Mediterranean rivals," with expectations that other nations might follow this example, while the Home Office previously urged visitors to allocate four hours for system navigation elsewhere.
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36 Articles
As reported by the Independent, the Greek embassy in London informs that British nationals who will visit our country this summer will not be required to provide fingerprints and facial biometric data.
Greece scraps new European Union fingerprint checks for British travellers
British holidaymakers heading to Greece this summer will not be subjected to the European Union's new biometric security requirements, after Athens announced it would waive fingerprint and facial scanning measures for UK visitors
Greece to drop Entry/Exit System machines for Brits
British travellers heading to Greek islands this summer can breathe easier after Athens has decided to opt out of strict new EU entry rules using the new EES machines. The past weeks of chaos at European airports is seen as a threat to the Greek peak summer season. Greece has unilaterally said “no”, “nein”, “non”, “Οχι” to the European Union and exempted UK passport holders from the EU’s Entry/ Source
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