National passports to stay despite US security rules

Date: 26/06/03

By Martin Banks

CONTROVERSIAL plans to introduce fingerprints or retina scans on EU citizen's passports to satisfy new US security requirements will not lead to harmonization of passports, the European Commission has said.

Under proposals to be unveiled by the Commission in July, EU passports and non-EU citizens' residence permits should include such physical characteristics.

However, the Commission denies the measure will lead to standardized EU passports. "This is out of the question," a spokesman said on 23 June.

"It is just about harmonizing some elements to make passports safer. But they will remain national passports."

Plans to harmonize passports were discarded at the 2000 Nice summit, which adopted the Nice treaty. The issue still stirs controversy, as passports are a symbol of national sovereignty.

The new measure is partly a result of America's global anti-terrorism campaign. US legislation passed after the 11 September 2001 attacks requires that, from October 2004, other countries will either have to include fingerprint and retina information on their passports or lose their right to participate in the US' visa waiver scheme.

This allows EU citizens to visit the US for up to 90 days without a visa. All EU countries except Greece have visa waiver programmes with Washington.

Unless the EU introduces the "biometric" information required in passports, its citizens face the prospect of long queues at US embassies to obtain visas.

However, Tony Bunyan, of UK-based civil liberties group Statewatch, said the proposals posed a potential threat to civil liberties. "The adoption of this decision for the wholesale surveillance of people's movements has been taken without any public consultation or debate in national parliaments," he said.

EU justice and home affairs ministers are expected to discuss the issue in September.

The European Commission does not intend to harmonise EU passports despite introducing new requirements to include physical characteristics in order to satisfy new US security requirements.