The European Parliament and Council negotiators held a first meeting on the evening of Thursday 24 January on the new security features for identity cards issued by Member States.
The European Parliament adopted its position in December (see EUROPE 12152) and the Council adopted theirs in November (see EUROPE 12137). The objective of the European Parliament rapporteur, Gérard Deprez (ALDE, Belgium), is to complete the work at the end of February so that the dossier can be validated before April and the end of the European Parliament's activity, he explained to EUROPE on 24 January.
According to him, 8 political points need to be more or less resolved, some of which are more complex than others. The European Parliament and the Council do not have the same position on: - the mandatory or optional nature of the presence of fingerprints or facial images on new identity cards, with the European Parliament wanting this to be optional, which will perhaps be the most difficult point; - visual harmonisation: the European Parliament wants a European acronym similar to what is affixed to driving licences. The Council has no provision on this point.
A more sensitive issue is the implementation of the new rules and the transition phase to phase out old unsecured ID cards. Over the period of validity of these same cards, the Council proposes 10 years and the European Parliament 8 years.
The European Parliament also wants the Council to accept the recognition of residence permits as a travel document, with the rapporteur citing the problem of spouses of EU nationals holding a residence permit that does not allow them to cross the EU's external border. There is also a discrepancy in the validity period of the provisional identity documents issued in the event of theft or loss. The European Parliament would like 3 months and the Council 12 months.
The rules proposed by the Commission last April (see EUROPE 12003) aim to combat identity fraud, but do not require Member States that do not currently have this practice to start issuing identity cards. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)