Belgium’s border authorities have spent months preparing for the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), which will capture the fingerprints and facial images of every non-EU traveller entering or leaving the Schengen Area. Yet, less than ten weeks before the technology becomes mandatory, the European Commission has quietly told member states they may suspend the system during peak-traffic periods to avoid holiday-season gridlock. The guidance, issued on 3 February, comes after trial runs in several airports—including Brussels Airport—showed that first-time enrolments can easily double processing times at passport control. (euronews.com)
Under the new “flexibility” clause, Belgium’s Federal Police will be allowed to revert to manually stamping passports between mid-June and early September if biometric queues threaten to spill into departure lounges. That breathing room matters: Brussels expects daily passenger volumes to exceed 90,000 during July and August, nearly 15 % higher than last summer. Airport management says even a 30-second delay per traveller could translate into hour-long lines at peak banks.
The Commission’s decision also eases pressure on carriers. Airlines had warned that missed connections would cascade through Europe’s tightly-timed hub-and-spoke network, forcing them to rebook thousands of passengers and reposition crews. By allowing a temporary fallback, Belgian operators gain a full season to train staff, fine-tune e-gate algorithms and educate travellers about pre-registration kiosks.
![EU allows member states—including Belgium—to pause new biometric border checks during summer rush]()
If you’re unsure how the shifting rules might affect your next trip, VisaHQ can step in with real-time guidance on Belgium’s EES procedures, future ETIAS requirements and any visa obligations you may face. The company’s streamlined portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) lets individuals and corporate travel managers check up-to-date entry criteria, submit applications and track approvals, taking much of the guesswork—and queue-time anxiety—out of cross-border planning.
For corporate mobility teams, the message is two-fold: build extra slack into summer itineraries, but do not postpone compliance planning. The EES launch date of 10 April 2026 remains unchanged, and border officers will resume full biometric capture as soon as traffic levels permit. Companies moving assignees to or through Belgium should update travel policies, budget for longer door-to-door times, and remind third-country nationals that a single failed fingerprint scan can still trigger secondary inspection.
Looking ahead, the same flexibility may be extended to late-2026, when the separate ETIAS travel-authorisation programme comes online. If the initial EES rollout proves bumpy, Belgium could lobby for a phased approach—avoiding a repeat of the congestion that dogged earlier security-technology rollouts such as U.S. ESTA and Canada’s eTA.
Under the new “flexibility” clause, Belgium’s Federal Police will be allowed to revert to manually stamping passports between mid-June and early September if biometric queues threaten to spill into departure lounges. That breathing room matters: Brussels expects daily passenger volumes to exceed 90,000 during July and August, nearly 15 % higher than last summer. Airport management says even a 30-second delay per traveller could translate into hour-long lines at peak banks.
The Commission’s decision also eases pressure on carriers. Airlines had warned that missed connections would cascade through Europe’s tightly-timed hub-and-spoke network, forcing them to rebook thousands of passengers and reposition crews. By allowing a temporary fallback, Belgian operators gain a full season to train staff, fine-tune e-gate algorithms and educate travellers about pre-registration kiosks.
If you’re unsure how the shifting rules might affect your next trip, VisaHQ can step in with real-time guidance on Belgium’s EES procedures, future ETIAS requirements and any visa obligations you may face. The company’s streamlined portal (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) lets individuals and corporate travel managers check up-to-date entry criteria, submit applications and track approvals, taking much of the guesswork—and queue-time anxiety—out of cross-border planning.
For corporate mobility teams, the message is two-fold: build extra slack into summer itineraries, but do not postpone compliance planning. The EES launch date of 10 April 2026 remains unchanged, and border officers will resume full biometric capture as soon as traffic levels permit. Companies moving assignees to or through Belgium should update travel policies, budget for longer door-to-door times, and remind third-country nationals that a single failed fingerprint scan can still trigger secondary inspection.
Looking ahead, the same flexibility may be extended to late-2026, when the separate ETIAS travel-authorisation programme comes online. If the initial EES rollout proves bumpy, Belgium could lobby for a phased approach—avoiding a repeat of the congestion that dogged earlier security-technology rollouts such as U.S. ESTA and Canada’s eTA.
