On Thursday 8 December, the European Commission published an action plan on tangible measures to improve the safety of travel documents, issuing clear recommendations to member states about how to clamp down on fraud.
The growing problem of fraudulent travel documents has been much in debate since recent attacks in Europe and with the large numbers of migrants arriving in Europe. Dimitris Avramopoulos, Migration and Internal Affairs Commissioner, says that guaranteeing the security of identity and travel documents is an important part of the fight against terrorism and organised crime.
The action plan covers documents issued by the member states to people from the EU or outside. States retain full responsibility for issuing and manufacturing travel documents, but have to abide by standards set at EU level.
The plan lays down measures for four key domains. Firstly, registering identity, where the member states should avoid issuing authentic documents based on false identities. When it comes to issuing documents, countries should improve practices for the registration of biometric data and strengthen the monitoring of issuing of identity and travel documents. In terms of the manufacture of documents, the action plan invites the Council and European Parliament to rapidly adopt proposals on a securer uniform format for visas and residence documents for people from outside the EU in order to avoid new fraud. Finally, for the control of documents, systematic registration of all cases of theft, loss, non-delivery and invalid documents in the Schengen Information System and Interpol’s databases is crucial.
Security Union Commissioner Julian King says that member states and EU agencies must now cooperate and taken as a whole, these measures will help fill existing gaps in security. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)