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We’ve all been there. That moment when you’re about to leave home for a long flight – your suitcase is packed, your fave podcast is downloaded, and you’ve checked your hand luggage at least a dozen times already for the most important thing of all: your passport.
Travelling abroad without a passport was once unfathomable, but in 2024, the checks and processes we go through are becoming more and more high-tech. Eurostar is rolling out fingerprint scanning, while certain airports have trialled an entirely passport-free boarding process.
Now, in a move to make travel checks smoother on a much bigger scale, the European Commission has proposed digitalising passports and identity cards for anyone going in or out of the Schengen area (a border which saw 600 million crossings last year).
The proposal includes creating a framework for the use of digital travel credentials (basically, an online version of your passport image, and all the other stuff stored in your passport chip), and an ‘EU Digital Travel’ app to store these credentials.
The aim of the scheme is to improve security (it will be harder to fake documents) and to make border controls more efficient – in short, having a digitised travel document will make life much easier for border authorities and travellers. The good news is that travellers who’d like to digitise their passport will be able to do so free of charge, and those who don’t want to won’t have to – the whole thing will be totally voluntary.
Sounds pretty futuristic, doesn’t it? The framework and app won’t be developed until the EU Council and the European Parliament agree to the proposals. Stay tuned!
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