EU to Introduce Compulsory Fingerprinting for all passport holders

The European Union Justice Ministry has proposed that all EU passport holders will have to have their fingerprints taken and included in the travel documents, it has emerged.

Prior to the November decision, the EU had agreed merely that all national governments would have the option of requiring fingerprinting for passports. Now, a second biometric identifier, fingerprints, will be mandatory.

This will mean that everyone of the 450 million people with passports in the EU will have to queue up in processing centres and compulsorily have their fingerprints taken and have a facial scan. The biometric data gathered will be stored on a chip embedded in the new passports. Personal details and the biometric data will be held on national databases and on a EU-wide database of European Register for issued passports - the latter will be on the Schengen Information System (SIS II) and be accessible by law enforcement agencies.

Portugal is the only EU country to routinely fingerprint its citizens, with fingerprinting limited to criminal investigations in other European states.
Italy, Germany, France and Greece were joined by Spain, Malta, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia in calling for fingerprinting to be a mandatory second biometric identifier. The UK and Germany suggested that a third biometric identifier iris scans should be included as well.

The proposals are currently under scrutiny by the European Parliament.