Luxembourg, 26/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Justice and Home Affairs Council reached political agreement on the inclusion of biometric data in European passports- a facial image and digital fingerprints. A photograph stored on a chip will be added to passports in 18 months after the detailed adoption of specific technical elements, and the fingerprints within 36 months.
The adoption of biometric passports was speeded up by pressure brought to bear by the United States, which have been threatening to withdraw the visa waiver for nationals of Member States which do not have biometric passports. This American requirement, which was initially earmarked for October 2004, was postponed by a year, and may be postponed again until October 2006. As they have set 18 months for the photograph, the Member States will not keep to the October 2006 deadline. They will, however, be ready for mid-2006. The digital fingerprints will come a little later, but for the time being the Americans are only insisting on the photograph, in line with the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
Biometric passports will be introduced in the 25 Member States of the EU plus Norway and Iceland, and later in Switzerland. Ireland and the United Kingdom, which are not part of the Schengen area, are not obliged to do this. They have, however, both indicated that they will adopt the same biometric passports. The same applies to Denmark, which has six months to say whether it will come in on this regulation. Norway and Iceland, which are part of the Schengen area, will also include the same biometric data. Switzerland will also come into line, once it ratifies its participation in Schengen (see other article). It has already planned to do so before this happens, in order to respond to the American requirements.
In June, the Council reached an initial political agreement that only the photograph would be obligatory, and the digital fingerprints optional, to be left up to each Member State. In the meantime, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania and Malta have brought pressure to bear for both indicators to be obligatory in the chip of all European passports. The other Member States have been won over by the extra time frame to add the digital fingerprints, according to a European source. Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia have been particularly reluctant.
The political agreement is still to be confirmed by the Council once Austria and Finland have lifted their scrutiny reservations and the Netherlands its parliamentary reservation. This new regulation will not affect the expiry date of passports already issued by the Member States.