Brussels, 05/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission welcomed American authorities' decision to request a two-year postponement of biometric passports by Congress. This requirement was due to come into force on 26 October 2004 with no Member State in a position to meet the deadline. "This corresponds to our request" said Pietro Petrucci, spokesperson for European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino, remarking that this will enable inhabitants of current Member States (except Greece) and Slovenia to continue to be exempt from needing a visa for a stay of less than three months. However, to compensate for this extension, the US will photograph and fingerprint EU citizens entering US territory as of 30 September, as they have for all visitors from non-Visa Waiver Countries since 5 January of this year. The European Commission is not offended at this measure, considering the visa waiver for Europeans citizens essential.
The Commission deems the new deadline - October 2006 instead of 2004 - "much more reasonable", according to the spokesperson of Antonio Vitorino. The Commission believes Member States ought to be ready to provide their citizens with passports containing a digital photograph stored in a microchip, to which fingerprints could also be added, by the end of 2005. The European Council has given the Council the task of adopting these new biometric passports, proposed mid-February by the Commission (see EUROPE of 19 February), before the end of 2004. The European Commission requests that the nine accession (non-Visa Waiver) countries - at the head of the list Greece - can also be exempt "in the same two year deadline" from the requirement. The United States underlines that "the visa waiver depends on very specific criteria, written in the legislation, and not belonging to an international organisation" (EUROPE 3 March).
Asa Hutchinson, Under-Secretary for Border and Transportation Security of the Department of Homeland Security, pointed out that extending the deadline and fingerprinting are "two complementary decisions" taken because the 27 Visa Waiver Countries "are unable to meet" the October 2004 deadline.
The US-VISIT fingerprinting and photograph programme is applied at all air and sea border controls. It will be gradually extended to land borders, also when leaving American territory.