British holidaymakers to avoid ‘burden’ of biometric check delays this summer, Greece pledges

British holidaymakers to Greece will not face delays due to biometric checks at the border at any time during the summer season, the country’s tourism minister has insisted.

Olga Kefalogianni told the BBC that the Greek government did not want visitors to be "burdened" by bureaucratic procedures when entering or leaving the country.

Greece is making efforts to ensure frontier checks take "less than a couple of minutes", she added.

Kefalogianni insisted Greece was not breaching EU rules, which currently allow Entry and/Exit System (EES) checks to be suspended briefly when airports become heavily congested, but prohibit blanket exemptions for citizens of a particular country.

"What we’re doing is not actually an exemption," she reportedly said. "It’s just that we have made sure that we facilitate the procedure in a way that means visitors are not burdened".

The EU last week said it was in contact with Greece "to clarify the situation and recall the existing rules".

The EU completed the introduction of the delayed EES digital border procedure in April.

But some passengers have suffered queues of up to three hours at some airports at busy periods, including those in Portugal and Italy.   

EES requires short term visitors from outside the EU and the European Economic Area to register biometric data each time they enter or leave the Schengen free travel zone.

The first time they cross the border, this is meant to include fingerprints and a facial scan – with one of those being checked each time they go through passport control.

Kefalogianni also admitted that reports of jet fuel shortages due to the Iran war leading to price rises or cancellations had made tourists more hesitant to travel.

"I think that this is a trend that you would see everywhere," she said. "People are being much more reluctant.

"But at the same time, they realise that Greece is always a country which has upgraded its tourism offering and that it provides a very good balance when it comes to price and the offering.

"We already have a lot of holidaymakers in Greece right now, and we’re looking forward to welcoming even more as the season evolves.”