13/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Biometric passports: Belgium ruled against. On 13 February, the Court of Justice of the EU found against Belgium (case C139/13) which, in 2013, had still not made the resources necessary to its 120 consulates and 600 communal administrations to issue biometric passports containing digital fingerprints, as required by regulation 2252/2004 (standards for security and biometric elements included in passports and travel documents). Belgium should have been in a position to respect this obligation from 30 June 2009 and is not challenging its failure to do so. The Commission decided to bring Belgium before the Court in March 2013, having sent it several letters of formal notice (in 2010 and 2011) and twice given it extra time to come into line with the regulation. (FG/transl.fl)