EU Needs More Time for Biometric Passports

So much for the US government's big rush to get them done this year, to the extent that they haven't thought out the implications of the RFID chip (although they realize they should call it anything but RFID, because the acronym RFID is a magnet for animosity).

EU needs more time for biometric passports BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) The European Union on Wednesday told the U.S. Congress the bloc needed another year to implement new U.S. rules on secure biometric passports, which include a computer chip with data such as a digital photo of the passport holder.

EU justice and interior ministers had said last year they would meet this year's Oct. 26 deadline. But only six of the 25 EU countries Belgium, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Sweden will be ready to issue biometric passports by that date.

After Oct. 26, citizens from 27 visa-exempt countries will have to apply for a visa or have a biometric passport.

The EU's Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini wrote on Wednesday to James Sensenbrenner, head of the U.S. House of Representative's Judiciary Committee that although the bloc had made substantial progress, it would require more time, until Aug. 28, 2006, to introduce the new passports.

"Despite all the progress ... we would urge the Congress to consider a second extension of the deadline," Frattini said in the letter. The United States had already extended the original Oct. 26, 2004, deadline by a year.

Frattini said the issuing of similar U.S. passports was also experiencing "a certain slippage" due to problems in adapting the new technology to passports. Japan also will be unable to meet the U.S. deadline, officials said.

So-called biometric features can reduce patterns of fingerprints, irises, voices and faces to mathematical algorithms that can be stored on a chip or machine-readable strip. EU countries also want to include a fingerprint on the chip.

"Despite all the progress made ... in reinforcing the security of passports you are surely aware that critical aspects of the biometric technology, such as data security and interoperability of reading devices, are still being finalized," wrote Frattini.

Frattini said the EU "shares the view of the United States that more secure travel documents are an important tool in the fight against international crime and terrorism."

The United States is urging European countries to have new biometric travel documents in place as part of its tighter border security checks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

All new U.S. passports issued by the end of 2005 are expected to have a chip containing the holders' name, birth date and issuing office, as well as a a photo of the holders' face. The photo is the international standard for biometrics, but countries are free to add other biometrics, such as fingerprints, for greater accuracy.

Also Wednesday, the EU head office released a report on the impact of using biometrics, which said more large-scale field trials were needed to ensure the new technology worked properly. It also urged governments to ensure safeguards for privacy and data protection in the use of biometric data.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at

. Hundreds of new articles daily.

*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, the Associated Press.

For more information go to: