Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002 laying down a uniform format for residence permits for third-country nationals

The current design of the residence permit originates from a Council Joint Action (97/11/JHA) adopted in 1997. Back in 2009, Member States considered that more sophisticated forgeries meant it was necessary to work on a new design for residence permits and decided to introduce more modern security features to improve the security of residence permits.

Regulation (EC) No 1030/2002, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 380/2008, lays down a uniform format for residence permits for third-country nationals. Due to the introduction of biometric features (facial image and fingerprints), the sticker version of the residence permit was abandoned, and since 20 May 2011 only card versions are permitted. During the negotiation of the 2008 amendment to the Regulation, which introduced biometric identifiers by means of a contactless chip in the residence permit, some Member States expressed the wish to include an optional contact chip for national use in their e-government services. This was accepted, as was the optional use of additional (national) security features.

The choice and implementation of additional optional security features and the scope for interpreting the technical specifications, which are no longer specific enough due to technical developments, meant that the quality and appearance of residence permits among Member States differed greatly. Work on a new design and security features started in 2010, when a subgroup of the committee set up under Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1683/95 was established to work on this issue.

From the Commission’s point of view, this ‘new start’ was also an opportunity to explore the possibility of introducing a uniform and harmonised format and ensuring all residence permits offered the same highest possible level of security. This would help border guards and other officials recognise residence permits at first sight.

The objective of this proposal is to secure and further improve the uniform format for residence permits in order to render the residence permits more secure and prevent forgery.

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)434: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:434:FIN

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