EU border information systems audit: findings and follow-up

What the audit found

The European Court of Auditors examined five systems used for Schengen external border control. They were the Schengen Information System, Visa Information System, Eurodac, Eurosur and Passenger Name Record systems. The audit covered the Commission, eu-LISA, Frontex and selected member states ¹.

The auditors found that the systems were well designed and were used more often. Hits on alerts for wanted people and objects from other countries rose from 87,000 in 2013 to 243,000 in 2017. The report found gaps in use. More than half of surveyed border guards said they had at some point let a person cross without checking the systems ^1,2.

Data quality and timing were the central weakness. Monthly monitoring showed about three million warnings of possible data quality problems among roughly 82 million Schengen Information System records. The auditors found that some information was entered late, and member states made limited use of available EU funding for border IT ^1,2.

The audit made recommendations on complete and timely data, shorter correction periods after Schengen evaluations, wider use of systems by border guards, and better monitoring of training and system availability ¹.

The official response

The Commission accepted the report's recommendations. Its replies said action was under way through revised legislation, technical work, evaluation follow-up and data quality measures ¹.

The Commission later said the Entry/Exit System would register the travel document data, facial images and fingerprints of non-EU nationals making short stays. It set 12 October 2025 for a progressive start across 29 countries ^3,4. That system was not one of the five systems tested in the 2019 audit.

Parliament

The European Parliament's civil liberties committee held an exchange on 18 February 2025 about repeated Entry/Exit System delays. Members questioned the Council, Commission and eu-LISA about technical delays, the effect on other systems and the plan for a phased start ⁵.

Parliament and the Council adopted the legal framework for a progressive rollout in July 2025. The Commission recorded that this replaced a single launch with a six-month introduction at border crossing points ³.

Follow-up audits and recommendations

The ECA's 2023 review of migration audit work restated the 2019 result. It said border guards relied increasingly on the systems, but use could be more systematic and the data needed to be complete and timely ⁷.

No later ECA performance audit measuring implementation of every Special Report 20/2019 recommendation was found as of 19 October 2026. The Entry/Exit System has its own audit and reporting duties under its regulation, including periodic data protection audits and annual statistics ⁸.

Courts, tribunals and investigations

No court judgment or official investigation deciding the 2019 audit findings was found as of 19 October 2026. The report was a performance audit of system design, use and data, not a ruling on criminal conduct ¹.

Where it stands now

The Entry/Exit System began a progressive rollout on 12 October 2025 and became fully operational on 10 April 2026. The Commission reported more than 52 million recorded entries and exits and over 27,000 refusals by that date ^4,6.

The European Parliament Research Service reported on 28 April 2026 that rollout had faced staffing and technical problems and limited use of pre-registration tools. It recorded that the system was fully deployed and that oversight now includes audits, statistics and periodic evaluations ⁸. The 2019 ECA recommendations remain the baseline audit record for the earlier border systems.

Timeline