Tag: biometrics

The US has agreed to give EU member states an extra year to introduce full biometric passports.

Biometrics are becoming more and more prominent in discussions about how society will look in the future. This dossier looks at their projected use in voting systems across Europe.

A satellite debate on anti-terrorism between senior EU and US officials has highlighted underlying differences on biometric passports. 

With the suicide bombing attacks on London in July 2005, anti-terrorism has become the absolute top priority for the UK Presidency (June-December 2005) and for Europe. The EU anti-terrorism policy, in place since the 2001 US attacks and extended after the 2004 bombings in Madrid, is being stepped up and will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Gijs de Vries was appointed in March 2004 as the European Council's special adviser to Javier Solana on counter-terrorism. A year in the post, he spoke to EurActiv on the EU's current and future policies to defeat the terrorist threat. 

The EU is seeking to improve the security of travel documents in the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration. From 2005, EU countries will begin to introduce biometric data into newly-issued passports. Similar proposals for visas and residence permits are being hampered by technical difficulties.

On 13 Dec the General Affairs Council approved two regulations dealing with biometric data in passports and external border security in the EU.

EU officials have met their US counterparts to discuss extending the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which currently allows nationals from 15 mostly western European members of the EU 25 to enter the United States without a visa.  

EU citizens travelling to the US will be fingerprinted and photographed from 30 September 2004. In addition, EU travellers to the US will have to be in possession of machine-readable passport if they want to enter the US without a visa from 26 October onwards.

EU interior ministers have agreed that within 18 months passports from EU citizens will contain one or two pieces of biometric data, a digitised face photo (compulsory) and a fingerprint (optional).

The US homeland security department has announced that the requirement for visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed is being expanded to include EU citizens.

The EU is seeking to improve the security of travel documents to fight against terrorism and illegal immigration. Proposals are being discussed to include biometric identifiers in documents for third country nationals (visa and residence permits) and EU citizens' passports.

In a move to step up the fight against visa fraud, the Council has adopted conclusions on the architecture, functionalities and biometric identifiers to be included in the future European-wide database on visas.

US authorities have begun fingerprinting and photographing international travellers at 115 airports and 14 cruise ship ports in an effort to stop terrorists from slipping into the country undetected.

On 27 November, EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers welcomed the proposal on the setting up of a Border Management Agency and adopted a programme on the control of the EU's maritime borders.