EU sues IBM, Atos and Leonardo over delayed €212m border system

The European Union has sued IBM, Atos and Leonardo over years of delays to the €212 million Entry/Exit System (EES), the smart border system for fingerprint and facial image checks on non-EU travelers. The system finally went live after missing a string of deadlines, leaving travelers facing long airport queues. eu-LISA, the agency behind EES, filed the claim in an Estonian court on December 22, 2025.

What the agency says

In a statement to The Register, eu-LISA confirmed it had initiated proceedings "in line with the Agency’s responsibility to protect the EU’s financial interests." It said the proceedings concern the system’s development phase and have no impact on current operation, adding that EES is fully operational. The agency declined to discuss the ongoing case.

A long-running dispute

The lawsuit was first buried in eu-LISA’s 2025 financial accounts, published in July, with no mention of who was being sued. The Financial Times later named the three companies after obtaining letters exchanged with the agency. Estonia’s Harju County Court confirmed that the civil case had been filed, although no hearings have taken place or been scheduled.

IBM Belgium and Atos Belgium were already arguing over penalties in October 2021, when they disputed a fine from eu-LISA and pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors beyond their control. By February 2022, the consortium was pushing back against another set of deadlines, warning that the agency’s timetable was unrealistic. "Ignoring reality is not prudent and will not help to achieve the plan," the companies wrote, according to the Financial Times. "On the contrary, working with an unrealistic plan will cause frustration for all stakeholders." The consortium also criticized eu-LISA’s "overall governance."

Costs and wider fallout

The contract had already grown from €142 million to €212 million in 2021, and the delays kept adding to the bill. In its 2022 accounts, eu-LISA acknowledged difficulties with the consortium and warned of additional costs, with the setbacks also holding up other EU IT projects. By 2023, it had nearly doubled its annual EES budget to €40 million by diverting funds from elsewhere, partly to cover rising hardware and software maintenance costs. The Financial Times also reported that IBM agreed in March 2022 to let eu-LISA withhold certain payments while the dispute over damages was resolved.

The original contract expired last year, with a new consortium taking over implementation, although IBM, Atos and Leonardo remained responsible until August. Last year, Atos reportedly used its Moscow office to procure software for the system, raising questions about Russian involvement in sensitive European border infrastructure. The EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF, found sufficient grounds for further investigation, according to an internal report seen by the Financial Times. However, it referred the matter back to eu-LISA despite describing the agency’s initial assessment as insufficient.

Current status

The EES was supposed to be ready in 2022, yet was not live until October 2025 and was only fully operational from April. Travelers have since had to contend with hours-long airport queues and fingerprint scanners that reportedly struggle with sweaty fingers. IBM and Atos did not respond to The Register’s questions. The EES may finally be up and running, but the argument over who should foot the bill for getting it there looks far from settled.

Sources: The Register