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EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) border checks not expected until November, says Port of Dover boss

New EU border checks are not expected to be brought in at the Channel ports until November, a year after the previous deadline, KentOnline can reveal.

The new Entry/Exit System (EES) was postponed last year amid concerns it could lead to traffic delays.

Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister has now told KentOnline that rather than being introduced all at once, the new checks are expected to be phased in over six months.

“We’re very pleased the EU has adopted a different approach,” he said.

“A progressive implementation should allow us to ramp up the EES registration process in line with making certain that the system can cope.”

The EES is being brought in to check and register Britons and other non-EU nationals travelling to the Schengen area in Europe, and so would directly affect drivers going from Dover to Calais on the ferries.

The previous start date of November 2024 was postponed after Germany, France and the Netherlands said their systems were not ready.

Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover
Doug Bannister, chief executive of the Port of Dover

The new checks will require fingerprinting and facial recognition checks at all ports.

The latest estimate the Port of Dover has received from the Department for Transport is that EES may now start this November.

Mr Bannister said this was not yet certain but the port authority may know for sure by this coming April or May.

“Since the European Union postponed the implementation of EES last November, we still don't have a firm date,” he said.

“But we've adopted a Department for Transport planning assumption that it will be coming in this November. So that's what we're gearing our plans up for.

“This a bit more time to make certain that they can get their technology to work properly and it can be properly tested.

“All of our work on the implementation of EES in Dover has been designed around making certain that we can offer a compliant service for what we need to do for the actual checks.

“But importantly it's to make certain that we minimise the impact of any traffic congestion on the town of Dover.

“We did it very successfully last summer, we did it mostly well over Christmas, but all our aims are trying to make certain that we're mitigating the impact in our local community.”

The port is creating more space to keep vehicles off the road while they are being checked.

The infilled Granville Dock at Dover's Western Docks where checks will take place
The infilled Granville Dock at Dover's Western Docks where checks will take place

The Granville Dock at the Western Docks was infilled last autumn. The land is now physically reclaimed and the new ground is being allowed to settle before final surfacing.

It will provide space for cars to be registered plus overspills of coaches during peak times. Coaches will otherwise be registered at a nearby former boatyard.

Mr Bannister said: “We successfully completed the whole infill. It only took about six weeks in September and October. All that ground needs to settle after it’s been reclaimed.

“We will have a bit more work to do to prepare the site but we can only start that in April once everything is settled.”

Dover has long been vulnerable to traffic clog-ups from the port spilling into the town. This can been caused by delays in border checks, stormy weather or strikes in France. It can also happen during holiday getaway peak times.

On July 22, 2022 motorists at the port, swelled by numbers getting away for the summer holiday, faced delays of more than four hours. This was due to issues with French border controls.

Last May, during the half-term getaway rush, drivers in Dover were kept waiting for as long as seven hours during long processing waits for port traffic.

Last January the Commons European Scrutiny Committee had been told that holidaymakers could face 14-hour delays with EES because of the time taken over the checks.

Kent County Council and Ashford Borough Council told the Committee in written evidence that this was a “reasonable worst case” scenario.

Under EES, manual passport stamps at Kent ports are to be replaced by biometric facial imaging and fingerprinting. This has to be done in the presence of French border police officers who will staff new kiosks at Dover and the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone.

Waiting vehicles smothered Dover Eastern Docks when traffic congestion spread into the town on July 22, 2022. Picture: Barry Goodwin
Waiting vehicles smothered Dover Eastern Docks when traffic congestion spread into the town on July 22, 2022. Picture: Barry Goodwin

Last September, transport bosses told KentOnline they feared the Port of Dover was a “nightmare waiting to happen” due a lack of space at the docks.

There was less concern over Eurotunnel’s capabilities after £70 million was invested in creating a pre-enrolment building, the size of two football pitches, at the Folkestone terminal.

It is large enough to accommodate 53 vehicles at any one time. Passengers required to register biometrics for EES will exit their cars and complete the process at newly-installed kiosks

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