Overview

• Under the new agreement, British passport holders can already use e-gates at 48 EU airports, including Paris Charles de Gaulle, Rome Fiumicino and Lisbon Terminal 1.
• The EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) will replace manual passport stamping from October 2025 and store non-EU arrivals’ fingerprints and facial images for three years.
• Portugal’s Faro Airport and Bulgaria’s Sofia Airport have begun granting e-gate access to UK tourists ahead of the EES launch, with Spain and Estonia lined up next.
• Individual EU member states will decide when to implement automated gates for British travellers, which could delay widespread adoption until summer 2026.
• Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has urged EU capitals to activate e-gate processing for UK visitors without delay to ease border queues.