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EU: European Parliament votes through report on biometric passports

01 December 2004

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The European Parliament today (2.12.04) voted through its report on biometric passports with 471 votes in favour to 118 against and 6 abstentions. The parliament had decided that the recent change to the proposed Regulation by the Council (the 25 governments) to make fingerprints mandatory as well as a facial image was not a substantial change requiring reconsultation. However, the parliament did say that the only mandatory biometric should be a facial scan. The changes to the draft Regulation put forward by the parliament will be ignored by the Council - which it does routinely under the "consultation" procedure. The Council intend to formally adopt the Regulation at the next available meeting of the Council of Ministers. The "details", such as the size of the "chip" holding the biometrics and the number of fingerprints to be taken will be decided in a Committee set up by the Commission of representatives of each member state.

Green/EFA press release

See background:

European Parliament urged to reject biometric registration of all EU citizens and residents

EU governments blackmail European Parliament into quick adoption of its report on biometric passports

EU biometric passports and mandatory fingerprinting: Statewatch legal analysis questions the legality of the proposed Regulation

Search in Statewatch database for "biometric"
Search in Statewatch database "Features Library" for in-depth articles on biometrics

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