EU sues IBM, two European companies over border system woes

Nov 9 (Reuters) - The European Union has sued IBM, French IT firm Atos and Italian defence group Leonardo over issues in developing its new smart border system, the bloc's IT agency handling immigration said on Monday.

The automated Entry/Exit System (EES) requires travellers to register at the border by scanning their passports and having their fingerprints and photographs taken.

The EU began rolling out the system, which aims to detect overstayers, tackle identity fraud and prevent illegal migration, in October last year amid political pressure in some countries to take a tougher stance on immigration.

"As the proceedings are ongoing, we do not comment on the details of the case. The proceedings concern the system's development phase and have no impact on its current operation," a spokesperson for eu-LISA said in a statement, adding that the system is fully operational across Europe.

The Financial Times, which first reported the move earlier in the day citing internal communications, said the legal proceedings came after the consortium "repeatedly missed deadlines and disputed the agency’s warnings and fines."

Letters between the consortium and eu-LISA, cited by the FT, show disagreements about missed deadlines and fines that go back several years.

IBM and Atos did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours, while Leonardo declined to comment. 

(Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman, Akanksha Khushi and Nethra Sailesh in Bengaluru, additonal reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Sahal Muhammed)