Biometrics - the EU takes another step down the road to 1984
01 September 2003
The European Commission has produced two draft Regulations (25.9.03) to introduce two sets of biometric data (fingerprints and facial image) on visas and resident permits for third country nationals by 2005. The biometric data and personal details on visas will be stored on national and EU-wide databases and be accessible through the Visa Information System (VIS) held on the Schengen Information System (SIS II). The proposal is silent on whether the biometrics and data on third country nationals will also be held on the SIS, though it is clear that national registers of third country nationals resident in every EU member state will be created (a long-standing demand by the German government will thus be put into practice). That this same information will also be held on the SIS is inevitable.
Another proposal for the inclusion of biometrics and personal data: "in relation to documents of EU citizens, will follow later this year"
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:
"These proposals are yet another result of the "war on terrorism" which show that the EU is just as keen as the USA to introduce systems of mass surveillance which have much more to do with political and social control than fighting terrorism.
To the proposed surveillance of all telecommunications is added the control of movement of all visitors and third country nationals, to be followed by that of EU citizens too. How long will it be before there will be a compulsory EU identity card? All the data will be held on the EU-wide Schengen Information System which can be accessed by tens of thousands of officials - how long will it be before biometrics collected for travel documents will be used for other purposes?
As to data protection, no new powers should be taken to collect personal data until national data protection authorities are given proper investigative powers and finance and the European Commission itself demonstrates a willingness to actually enforce the 1995 Directive"
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The Commission's proposals are explicitly presented as a response to "September 11, 2001" to "improve document security" in order to "detect people who try to use forged official documents in order to gain entry to European Union territory". What is extraordinary is that the EU adopted two Regulations just last year (on visas - 334/2002/EC and residence permits -1030/2002/EC) as a response to the need for security including the introduction of photographs on both sets of documents. It was last autumn that the Benelux countries - Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg - said this was not good enough and that biometric data should be included too. The German government backed this idea.
This proposal from these four EU member states was endorsed at the Informal Justice and Home Affairs Ministers meeting in Veria, Greece on 28-29 March. According to the Commission document:
"Commissioner Vitorino undertook to present a proposal, at the same time emphasising that a coherent approach should be taken in respect of all travel documents, including the passports of EU citizens"
Mr Vitorino was echoing the views of the majority of EU governments and, like them, used the US demand that passports had to carry biometric data by October 2004 to try and legitimate the move - which is hardly logical as most EU citizens will never visit the USA or indeed may not want to.
The Thessaloniki Summit under the Greek Presidency of the Council on 19-20 June endorsed the approach agreed at the Informal JHA meeting and added that there should be a "harmonised solution" between biometric data on travel documents and "information systems (VIS and SIS II)". VIS is the Visa Information System which will comprise National Visa Information Systems (N-VIS) and a Central Visa Information System (C-VIS). The Summit Conclusions, like the Commission document, is silent on the question of whether biometric and perso