EES is coming this year, allegedly, while ETIAS will wait ’till 2026. EES is an automatic registration and will eliminate the need for passport stamps for short stay visitors to most of the EU; ETIAS is the pre-travel authorisation system, travellers will need to apply for permission to enter prior to visiting the EU, as we do for travel to the USA. 19 Jun 2025
From europe.eu, “Key differences between EES and ETIAS”, they say, “The EES will register visa-free and visa-required travellers entering Europe for a short stay. No action will be required from travellers before they start their trip, as registration will be done at the external border of any of the 29 European countries using the system. The countries in question are the 29 Schengen countries. Registration on the EES will be done every time travellers cross external borders and will replace the manual stamping of passports.”
It looks like we have to take no action this year for EES, unless you do not have a machine readable passport, and that ETIAS, which does, will not come into effect until Q4 2026.