Do you need an ETA for Europe? ETIAS, EES and the UK ETA, sorted out

If you are flying to Greece, Croatia, Germany, Italy or anywhere else in the EU, you do not need to apply for anything in advance. ETIAS, the European travel authorisation everyone has been warned about for years, is still not operating. No applications are being taken.

Two things have changed, though, and they are worth ten minutes of your attention.

Since 10 April 2026 the EU has been running its Entry/Exit System at the border, which means a photograph and fingerprints on arrival instead of a passport stamp. You do not apply for that. It happens at the desk.

And if your trip includes the United Kingdom, you do need a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation before you fly. That one is real, it costs 20 pounds, and it is a different scheme from anything the EU runs.

Your personalized guide checks the entry rules against your own passport and destination, which is the reliable way to be sure. This post is here to untangle why three schemes with almost identical names keep getting reported as one.

The three schemes, side by side

	ETIAS	EES	UK ETA
Who runs it	European Union	European Union	United Kingdom
Operating now?	No	Yes, since 10 April 2026	Yes
Do you apply in advance?	Not yet possible	No, it happens at the border	Yes, before you travel
Cost	Will be EUR 20	Free	20 pounds
What it is	A travel authorisation	A biometric border record	A travel authorisation

The names are the problem. An American who reads "you will need an ETA for Europe" reasonably assumes one form covers the continent. It does not, and one of the three schemes being written about does not exist yet.

Photo by Maxim Tolchinskiy on Unsplash

ETIAS is not operating, and no launch date exists

This is the part that trips up the most people, because ETIAS has been reported as imminent for several years running.

Checked again on 25 August 2026, the official EU ETIAS page says this, word for word:

ETIAS is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorisations are collected at this point.

And on when it will start:

The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch.

The European Commission's own smart borders page carries identical wording. There is no date. Not a quarter, not a season, not a year.

When it does start, the published terms are a fee of EUR 20, valid for three years or until your passport expires, whichever is sooner. Travellers under 18 and over 70 are exempt from the fee. Those figures are current as of 25 August 2026 and could change before launch, so check the official ETIAS site rather than trusting this post on the day it matters.

If you read a news story next month announcing an ETIAS start date, treat it as unconfirmed until it appears on that EU page. Outlets have run wrong ETIAS dates repeatedly, and the EU has said plainly it will announce the date itself, in advance.

EES is the one that actually changed

The Entry/Exit System is the real development, and it gets far less coverage than ETIAS despite being the one you will actually encounter.

It rolled out in phases and, per the EU's own EES pages, "This progressive implementation lasted until 9 April 2026. From 10 April 2026, the EES is fully operational at all external border crossing points of the European countries using the system."

What it means in the queue:

• Your passport is not stamped any more. The EU replaced the ink stamp with a digital record.
• If you are visa-exempt, which covers US, UK, Canadian and Australian passport holders, the system records four fingerprints and a facial image.
• If you hold a short-stay Schengen visa, only the facial image is taken, because your fingerprints were captured during the visa application.
• Children under 12 do not have fingerprints scanned.
• There is nothing to apply for and nothing to pay.

It applies at the external border of 29 countries. Two EU members sit outside it: Cyprus and Ireland do not use EES, and passports there are still stamped by hand. That is genuinely counterintuitive and worth knowing if your trip routes through Dublin.

The practical advice is short. Your first crossing after April 2026 takes longer than you are used to, because your biometrics are being enrolled for the first time. Later crossings are quicker. Some border points have self-service kiosks or a national app that lets you pre-enter some details, which the EU describes as optional and time-saving rather than required. Build in extra time for a first arrival, especially on a tight connection.

Photo by Ethan Wilkinson on Unsplash

The UK ETA is real, and it is the one people miss

If any part of your trip touches the UK, this is the form you actually have to fill in.

From gov.uk: "An ETA costs £20." Verified 25 August 2026, and worth rechecking on the official page before you apply, because this fee has been raised before.

The essentials, all from gov.uk:

• Who needs one. US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Japanese nationals have needed one since 8 January 2025. All EU nationals, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the European micro-states, have needed one since 2 April 2025. Both dates come from the Home Office's national list, which is the authoritative record of who is in scope and from when.
• How long it lasts. Two years, or until your passport expires, whichever comes first. You can travel as many times as you like within that, up to six months per visit.
• How long it takes. gov.uk says you will usually get a decision by email within a day, but it can take up to three working days. Apply well before you fly rather than at the airport.
• Airside transit. If you change planes without passing through UK border control, you do not need one. If you pass through border control, you do.
• Where to apply. The UK ETA app or gov.uk directly. Nowhere else.

gov.uk puts the warning bluntly on its own overview page: "Other websites may charge more to apply. Avoid websites that imitate government services."

That warning is the whole reason this post exists. A traveller who has been told for years that Europe needs an ETA, and who then finds a site selling one, is being set up.

So what do you actually need for Greece?

Nothing, in advance, if you hold a US, UK, Canadian or Australian passport and you are visiting for a short stay.

Same answer for Croatia, Germany and Italy. ETIAS is not operating, so no one is required to hold one for any European country today. You will go through the EES biometric process on arrival, which requires no preparation beyond patience.

What you do still need is the ordinary set: a passport valid well beyond your dates, proof of onward travel if your airline asks, and awareness that the Schengen 90-days-in-180 limit applies across the whole zone rather than per country. Our post on whether Athens is in the Schengen Area works through how that clock is counted.

Photo by Global Residence Index on Unsplash

Anyone selling you an ETIAS right now is selling nothing

There is no legitimate way to buy an ETIAS in August 2026, because the system is not accepting applications from anyone.

The EU addresses intermediary sites on its own FAQ, noting that its site is the only official one and that other services "may also require you to pay additional fees." That is written for the future, when ETIAS is running. Today the position is simpler: a site charging you for an ETIAS application cannot file one, because no applications are being collected.

Two habits protect you here, and they apply to every entry scheme, not just this one:

1. Go to the government domain yourself. For the EU it is travel-europe.europa.eu. For the UK it is gov.uk. Type it in rather than following a search advert, because paid results for these terms are full of resellers.
2. Match the fee to the official figure. EUR 20 for ETIAS when it launches, 20 pounds for the UK ETA. A higher price means you are paying an agent for something you can do yourself in ten minutes.

The short version

• ETIAS: not operating. No applications, no launch date, nothing to do. EUR 20 when it eventually starts, free for under-18s and over-70s.
• EES: live since 10 April 2026. Fingerprints and a photo at the border, no stamp, no application, no fee. Allow extra time on your first crossing. Cyprus and Ireland are not part of it.
• UK ETA: required, 20 pounds. Apply on gov.uk or the UK ETA app before you fly. Two years, six months per visit. Not needed for airside transit.
• For Greece, Croatia, Germany or Italy today: no advance authorisation.
• Anyone charging you for an ETIAS in 2026 cannot actually file one.

Entry rules move on policy cycles rather than a schedule, so this post is rechecked every 90 days. Everything above was verified against the official EU ETIAS and EES pages, the European Commission and gov.uk on 25 August 2026.

Rules also differ by the passport you hold, which is the part a general article cannot do for you. Your personalized guide checks your own nationality against your destination and tells you what is genuinely required for your trip.