Lithuania Delivers IDEMIA’s Latest Biometric EU Entry/Exit Contract

“The contract has been awarded in anticipation of the incoming EU Entry/Exit System (“EES”) regulation, which is broadly aimed at ensuring that EU members within the region’s Schengen zone register information about non-EU nationals, including their biometric data.”

Lithuania has become the latest European country to look to IDEMIA technology in order to comply with incoming European Union rules concerning border control. The France-based company, in partnership with traveler self-service specialist Easier, has been awarded a contract by the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service.

The companies will provide Lithuanian authorities with over 70 self-service Entry/Exit System kiosks and over 30 Automated Border Crossing lanes at border checkpoints. The kiosks will enable the collection of face and fingerprint biometrics, while the ABC gates will support travel document reading and traveler verification.

The contract has been awarded in anticipation of the incoming EU Entry/Exit System (“EES”) regulation, which is broadly aimed at ensuring that EU members within the region’s Schengen zone register information about non-EU nationals, including their biometric data. Comprising 26 European countries, the Schengen Area is meant to facilitate relatively unrestricted travel between member states.

While the new EES regulation was initially slated to come into effect in May of this year, a decision was made in October of 2021 to delay its implementation until September of 2022. Calls for tenders in other Schengen member countries remain ongoing.

Lithuania’s contract award comes after the Danish National Police force issued a similar EES border contract to IDEMIA last autumn, the result of a year-long competitive procurement process. That contract itself followed an EES contract that IDEMIA won with Iceland in late 2020. Easier worked with IDEMIA on both projects.

For its part, Easier issued a statement in which the company said that its team are “delighted to further our partnership with IDEMIA, which has enabled us to win this third tender for the Schengen Entry/Exit System following Iceland and Denmark in 2021.”

Sources: SchengenVisaInfo.com, Easier

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April 22, 2022 – by Alex Perala