Want to jet off to Italy, Spain, or France? Starting in 2024, all travelers going to European Union countries will have to not only book their flight and hotel and bring their passport, but they also must fill out an online application before traveling on their trip.
The online application requires authorization and to pay a fee through the European Travel Information and Authorization System. The system is expected to be operational in 2024.
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Travelers will be required to fill out personal information, including date and place of birth, home address, parents' names, phone number, email, nationality, education, occupation, planned travel destinations, and criminal history.
Nile Gardiner, a former aide to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, called the new EU program "Orwellian."
"I do see this as big government overreach here. It’s quite Orwellian with the amount of information that EU officials are requesting," Gardiner said to Fox News host Neil Cavuto.
Most applications are expected to clear in a few minutes, but some applications could take four days and possibly up to 30 days to process. Once approved, your authorization is valid for three years.
"U.S. travelers that wish to travel to the European Union will have to go through this application process. It is intensely bureaucratic. It will be hugely inefficient," Gardiner said.
He added an important prediction: "This is the most important aspect here: I fear that EU officials will be using this to keep some individuals out of Europe from the United States whose political views that they don’t like. So there’s always potential for this kind of misuse of this kind of system."
The EU is legitimizing the new system for the purpose of enhanced security.
“ETIAS will further strengthen Europe’s internal security by carrying pre-travel screening of visa-free travellers to determine whether they pose a security, illegal immigration, or public health risk,” the EU website says.
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Gardiner called it "ridiculous" that U.S. citizens should be forced to undergo the application process when most U.S. citizens do not pose national security threats.
"It’s quite the other way around. You have large numbers of Islamist terrorists operating in Europe that pose a threat to U.S. national security. At the end of the day, this is about enhancing big government bureaucracy and control. I think the system is going to be a hugely unwelcomed addition. Going to Europe will put a lot of U.S. citizens off from traveling to Europe, and can it be misused for political purposes by EU officials. I wouldn’t trust the EU to handle this properly at all," Gardiner concluded.