Spain claims that its external border checkpoints will be ready and prepared with all the required equipment for the implementation of the new Entry/Exit System (EES) by the end of 2023 or early 2024. “Spain’s plan is for the system to be completed and all equipment deployed between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024,” the Communication Cabinet of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior has confirmed. The country intends to plant 1,500 Manual Border Control Inspection units across all of its border-crossing points by that time, as revealed back on June 16, 2022, when the Spanish Ministry of Interior announced it had hired Thales for equipping its border checks with such technology. Thales, which is a French multinational company is headquartered in Paris, designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems and equipment for the defence, transportation and security sectors. In June 2022, when revealing the contract reached between Spain and Thales, the latter had said that it would deploy the modern systems for which it was hired in the following months, before May 2023, when the EES was supposed to be implemented EU-wide. “The contract will be executed over the next eight months, during which these modern systems will be deployed at airports, ports and land crossings throughout Spain,” the company had said at the time. While such a thing has not happened, it remains unknown at how many of the Spanish border control points the equipment has been deployed. The EES is a border management system of the EU, which was supposed to be launched in May 2023. However, due to delays that have been blamed on third parties, the system has now been postponed. The date of its possible implementation remains unknown. Through the EES, the EU will collect biometric information of those entering and leaving its territory, preventing from entering those posing any type of threat to its security. Thales is also responsible for equipping France’s borders with a total of 544 new kiosks and 250 tablets as a part of the preparations for the new Entry/Exit System. Other countries, like Lithuania, Iceland and Denmark, have selected IDEMIA, a multinational technology company also headquartered in France, which sells facial recognition and other biometric identification products and software to governments and private companies as well. To date, Lithuania is the sole EU member to have announced the complete readiness for the EES launch, with its borders being fully equipped with the required technology.