Goodbye to the passport: this is how the way of traveling in the European Union will change

Until now, both EU citizens as those from third countries are subject to systematic controlswhich are currently carried out physically at the border crossing. With the aim of achieving more fluid movements, but also safer for the Schengen area passengersthe European Commission has proposed streamline procedures and put an end once and for all to the need to go to checkpoints, such as those at airports, with an identification document.

As recognized by the organization, the idea is to standardize all processes and allow travelers to carry the necessary documentation in a single application, called ‘EU Digital Travel’. This proposal is accompanied by the creation of “a common framework for the use of digital travel credentials».

Goodbye to the passport: this is the form of travel that the European Union wants to implement

With the intention of streamlining procedures when traveling between countries of the European Union, the Commission has proposed a common framework “for the use of digital travel credentials and a new digital travel app of the EU (EU Digital Travel) for travelers to create and store those credentials. Thanks to this technology and the new regulations that it will implement, it is expected not only to facilitate the crossing of borders, but also to make safer trips to the Schengen area.

This new application will contain a digital version of the data stored in the passports and the identity documents. In this way, all EU and third country citizens who have a biometric passport or EU ID card will be able to collect theirus travel credentials on your mobile phonebeing able to present it easily in the border control prior to your trip.

One of the objectives, they say, is to reduce paperwork for EU citizens, so that they can use digital identity documentswithout having to carry your printed identification everywhere. Likewise, this new system aims to speed up the process of border managementwhere the authorities will be able to dedicate their time and resources to the identification of criminals cross-border travel thanks to the advance controls that digital travel credentials will allow.

With all this, the security of the Schengen area can be promoted, allowing agents to more easily verify the authenticity of a travel documentmaking it difficult for fraudsters to use false documents or cross borders undetected.

When will the EU digital travel app be available?

For the moment, to say goodbye definitively to the passport as we know it, we will still have to wait several yearsas warned by the European Commission. “It is now up to European Parliament and the Council reach an agreement about the proposal,” they explain on their website. Once this happens, we will have to wait for the relevant procedures to be followed and for the EU digital travel application and the technical standards necessary for it to be created.

The EU digital travel app is expected to be list from 2030. From then on, European travelers will be able to store their digital travel credentials in the European digital identity walletwithout having to carry the documentation with you everywhere.

This proposal tries to respond to the Schengen strategy adopted in 2021, in which the commitment was made to continue digitizing procedures at the external borders. Thus, the initiative supports the Commission’s “Digital Europe” and “Digital Compass” strategy within the framework of Europe’s Digital Decade, whose objective is to digitize public services and provide all citizens of the Union with a digital identification of here in 2030.