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How France, through the fault of Atos, failed the project to introduce a biometric border system

Customers: European Commission

Contractors: Atos SE, IBM, Leonardo


Project date: 2024/12

In early December 2024, it became known that the European Union was unable to commission the EES (Entry/Exit System) biometric border system on schedule. The French IT corporation Atos is said to be to blame for the disruption of the project.

EES is an automated system for registering citizens using fingerprints and facial recognition tools. Atos won a contract worth €142 million to create EES in 2019 in a consortium with IBM and Leonardo SpA. The Atos project is tasked with creating EES hardware and software, while IBM is developing part of the platform's overall architecture. In turn, Leonardo provides cybersecurity. Within five years, the EES launch was rescheduled four times. According to internal correspondence between EU officials and contractors, which Bloomberg reviewed, many of the problems that have arisen are related to Atos's inefficient operation.

How France, through the fault of Atos, failed the project to introduce a biometric border system

In particular, in emails from EU-Lisa - the EU agency that oversees large-scale information technology projects - it says that Atos actually slowed down work on the project. The company did not fully mount the equipment, after which it spent weeks fixing errors. Often, teams without experience were assigned to complete the tasks, which led to a delay in the deadlines and millions of additional maintenance costs.

One letter notes that despite all the efforts made by EU-Lisa and EU member states, contractors continue to breach deadlines. EES launch problems triggered the chain reaction. Thus, about 130 employees hired as part of the project had to be transferred to another job due to delays.[1]

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