The news that British travellers are being urged to plan ahead for delays caused by the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) is a classic case of what one might call ‘the revenge of the bureaucrats’. This is not a mere technical glitch or a seasonal hiccup. It is a symbol of how continental Europe, in its post-Brexit pique, has chosen to weaponise procedure against the huddled masses of British holidaymakers. The parallels to the late Roman Empire, where border controls became increasingly elaborate and punitive as the centre struggled to maintain order, are almost too obvious to mention.
Let us be frank: the EES is a solution in search of a problem. The EU already has the Schengen Information System, a database of lost and stolen passports that works reasonably well. The new system, which will require biometric data collection and facial recognition checks, is a classic case of bureaucratic overreach. It will add minutes, sometimes hours, to border crossing times at ports and airports. And who will suffer most? The British, of course.
The timing is exquisite. Just as the summer holiday season begins, when families are desperate to escape the grey drizzle of the British Isles for the promised sun of the Costa del Sol, the EU drops this anvil. It is almost as if they are testing our resolve. And it is working. The advice from the Foreign Office and travel associations is a chorus of panic: arrive three hours early, have your documents ready, expect chaos. This is not travel advice. This is a warning from the state: you are no longer welcome here as a privileged guest; you are a supplicant at the gates.
The deeper issue, however, is not the technicalities of the EES. It is the intellectual decadence of a Europe that has lost sight of the meaning of freedom of movement. The very concept is being eroded by a thousand small regulations, each one logical in isolation, but collectively creating a fortress mentality. The EU is not unlike the late Victorian era, when the British Empire became so obsessed with paperwork and passes that it forgot the human reality of movement and trade. The result was stagnation and resentment.
What can the British traveller do? Prepare, yes. But also reflect. These delays are a reminder of the cost of leaving the European Union. Not just in economic terms, but in the intangible loss of frictionless travel. The British were once the globe-trotters par excellence. Now we are told to queue patiently at the gates of a continent we helped rebuild. It is a slow, grinding humiliation.
And yet, there is a perverse humour in it all. The EU’s system is likely to be a shambles. Technical glitches, confused staff, and angry queues will be the order of the day. The bureaucracy will choke on its own ambition. Mark my words: within two years, the EES will be quietly reformed or abandoned. But in the meantime, British travellers will suffer the indignity of being late for their holidays. And that, my friends, is the price of sovereignty.
