Mandatory fingerprinting for new ID cards across EU is the wrong approach
Date
19 Feb 2019
Sections
Security
S&D MEPs are disappointed that negotiators from the European Commission, Council and Parliament have agreed to new minimum standards on ID cards that would make it mandatory to collect fingerprints and include them on a chip. This was despite a strong European Parliament mandate to make it optional, allowing member states to decide at a national level. Centre-right and conservative political groups (EPP, ALDE and ECR) decided on Tuesday to accept the Council’s position of mandatory fingerprinting.
These new rules still need to be approved by the plenary of the European Parliament.
S&D MEP responsible for the update to the rules for ID cards, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann said:
“We are disappointed by the outcome of these negotiations. We fully support updating standards on ID cards, to make them harder to falsify and easier to use. However, making the collection of fingerprints mandatory for ID cards across the whole of the EU is unnecessary, burdensome and raises serious data privacy concerns. We believe that the decision of whether to include fingerprints should be taken at a national, not EU level, to allow real debate in each country. Instead, what will happen is national ministers will now avoid debate on the issue and fall back on the old falsity that it was something ‘forced on them by Brussels.’
“We will continue to fight against these unnecessarily burdensome rules when they come back to be approved in the European Parliament.”