Here is how the official bodies of Schengen countries explained it: dactyloscopy is a tool of particular importance that will not only improve the protection of your personal data but also speed up passport control. The VIS (Visa Information System) is also intended to facilitate obtaining tourist visas, including long-term ones.
It is believed that in this way Schengen countries will ensure security – both their own and that of tourists, strengthen protection against all sorts of fraudsters, swindlers and other criminal individuals, and improve and strengthen the work of border services. Again – fingerprints taken, travelers will have to behave more responsibly, think ten times about what they can touch. Fingerprints will also protect against the influx of illegal immigrants who have devised a very simple scheme for entering Europe: arrive, send passport to a friend by mail, that friend arrives – passes it on to another.
True, it is not entirely clear how mass fingerprinting correlates with personal data protection legislation. In Russia, for example, after the law "On the Right to Be Forgotten" came into force, citizens began to massively demand the removal of their data from the internet (more on this can be read here). But that is a personal matter. And here, if you want to go to Europe, you will not only give your fingerprints.
They promise that visas with biometric data will be valid for three to five years. True, it is somewhat unclear – will fingerprints change in five years? And forensic experts say they do not change. They could give it for life – and no hassle. Oh well, the main thing for us is to get that visa.
To give fingerprints, you should contact the embassy or consulate of any country party to the Schengen Agreement (but they often direct you to visa centers). But here is the trouble – our country is not Liechtenstein – in order to get to any diplomatic mission (personal presence is required), if you live not in a big city but in a small provincial town, or even worse – in a village, and even thousands of kilometers away from that mission by local transport... So how much will the visa cost?
Yes, don't dare scratch your fingers – you'll have to wait until they are completely healed. They will refuse to issue it, and you will need money for living until healing. Good thing that children under twelve are not yet required to have their fingerprints scanned, though they might change their minds.
You look, you calculate, and you don't want any Europe, with all its beauties, monuments, history and efforts to make travel safe. The processing of biometric data will, judging by the above, require much more time than the procedure of expedited border control using such identification means.