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Maastricht and ID cards

01 January 1991

Maastricht and ID cards
artdoc June=1992

The meeting of the new Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal
Affairs of the European Parliament (EP) on 3 March criticised the
Maastricht agreement because it gave the EP virtually no new
powers. The committee resolution said that important decisions
on asylum and immigration policy and combatting crime were being
left to `bodies which in fact can skirt national or European
parliamentary control and, above all, sanctions'. Mr Bangemann,
for the European Commission, told the Committee that it was not
trying to force the UK to adopt identity cards. This contrasts
with Mr Bangemann's warning in February that the UK could face
legal action by citizens if it continued to make border control
checks - with the implication that the UK would have to find
other means, i.e. identity card checks inside the country. It
contrasts too with a speech given by Sir Leon Brittan, Vice-
President of the European Commission, to Bramshill Police
Training College last year in which he suggested it would be a
`simple step' for the UK to introduce optional identity cards.
Reuters Textline/Agence Europe, 3.3.92; Guardian 26.2.92;
Independent 3.11.91.

Statewatch, vol 2, no 3, May-June 1992
Europe EC