Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Friday the 10th of April.

And that is a red letter day in the European Union because from today, the entry-exit system is expected

to be running at all Schengen area frontiers. That means the entire

EU minus Ireland plus Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, all the way from the Russian frontier with

Norway in the Arctic, south to the Canary Islands airports of Spain.

It will bring to an end, says the European Union, the end of the stamping of passports.

Well, that's what they say.

The digital border scheme aims to keep a central database of British travellers,

as well as many other nationalities, from Americans to Venezuelans.

Can you sense there's a butt coming? There certainly is.

Several EU countries are far from ready,

and officials in Brussels have conceded to me just yesterday that some passports will

still be stamped. I of course have been covering the entry-exit system for years and I hope

can bring you up to date with what is claimed to be the most modern digital border system in the world.

The aims of the entry-exic system identify suspected criminals.

Combat identity fraud.

Police the limit on stays of 90 days in any 180 days that apply to UK and other nationalities.

And to do that, they simply keep tabs on the comings and goings of us third country nationals.

We are registered in the entry exit system every time we cross on the external frontier.

The simple idea is that you will have your biometrics registered.

That's a face and your fingerprints the very first time you register.

And subsequent to that, it will just be one of those, almost certainly the face,

...