Brussels Finished Its Border-Data Bargain With Washington on Thursday, and What Portugal Actually Hands Over Will Be Settled in a Separate Deal

The European Commission said on Thursday that it has finished negotiating a framework agreement with the United States on the exchange of border data, closing a file that has run since Washington told Europe in February 2022 that visa-free travel would come with a price. The agreement is called the Enhanced Border Security Partnership, and the Commission's summary of it is unusually modest: it establishes "general conditions" for information exchange, and the exchanges themselves will rest on bilateral agreements negotiated afterwards between each member state and the United States.

That distinction is the whole story. Nothing was agreed on Thursday about what Portugal hands over. What was agreed is the envelope that a future Portugal to United States deal would have to fit inside.

Why Brussels Was Negotiating at All

The Visa Waiver Program lets a Portuguese passport holder fly to the United States for up to 90 days of tourism or business on an ESTA authorisation rather than a consular visa. In February 2022 Washington announced a new condition for every country in the programme or hoping to join it: a bilateral partnership with the Department of Homeland Security giving American authorities access to information held in national databases, biometric records included.

A Council of the European Union note circulated on 5 December 2025, and made partially public in April, records the deadline plainly. "The U.S. expects operational EBSPs to be in place by 31 December 2026. After this deadline, the DHS is expected to assess each country's compliance with the EBSP requirement for participation in the VWP." Rather than let 27 governments negotiate separately with Washington from 27 different positions, member states asked the Commission in June 2024 to propose a common mandate. It presented a draft on 23 July 2025, technical agreement followed on 1 December, and the Council formally authorised the talks with Decision (EU) 2025/2640, adopted on 16 December 2025.

That decision frames the object as the reciprocal exchange of information for security screening and identity verification of travellers, to establish whether an entry or stay would pose a risk to public security or public order. It requires the result to respect the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the European Data Protection Supervisor, consulted on 17 September 2025, warned that any processing should not exceed what is strictly necessary and proportionate.

What Happens Next

The text now goes to the Council, which decides whether to sign it, and then to the European Parliament, whose consent is required before the Council can conclude it formally. Parliament has form here: it has forced the renegotiation of transatlantic data agreements before, and data protection tends to be the reason. Only once the framework is in force may member states open their own bilateral talks with Washington, drawing on national databases they hold themselves.

What This Means for You

• If you hold an EU passport: nothing changes at check-in yet. ESTA works as it does today, and will until a Portugal to United States bilateral is signed and implemented.
• If you hold a non-EU passport and live here: this does not reach you. The Visa Waiver Program runs on nationality, not residence, so a residence permit for Portugal has never opened the American border.
• The deal to watch is the Portuguese one: which national databases Lisbon opens, and on what terms, is a decision that will be taken in Lisbon, not Brussels.

This is the third border-data system to move in a year, after the Entry/Exit System finished its phase-in this month and ETIAS slipped to 2027. The border is being rebuilt as a database query, and the queue matters less each year than the record checked before you reach it.