The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Gérard DEPREZ (ALDE, BE) on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on strengthening the security of identity cards of Union citizens and of residence documents issued to Union citizens and their family members exercising their right of free movement.
The committee recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission's proposal.
Subject matter: the proposed Regulation seeks to strengthen the security standards applicable to identity cards issued by Member States to their nationals and to residence documents issued by Member States to Union citizens and their family members in order to facilitate the exercise of their right to freedom of movement within the European Union.
Security standards/format/specifications: national identity cards issued by Member States to citizens of the Union shall be recognised as such by all Member States. Such cards shall function as both identity and travel documents and be recognised as such by all Member States.
Where Member States issue identity cards having a validity period of more than 3 months, these shall be produced in ID-1 format, contain a functional machine-readable zone (MRZ) and shall comply with the minimum standards laid down in the template set out in Annex I to this Regulation. Additional technical specifications shall be established in accordance with international standards, including in particular the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The cards shall be made entirely of polycarbonate or an equivalent synthetic polymer with a background colour of blue and contain the EU flag.
Cards shall include a highly secure storage medium which shall contain a facial image of the holder of the card taken live by the relevant authority in the Member State and, in the event a Member State so decides, may also contain a subset of the characteristics, namely minutiae or patterns, extracted from two fingerprints taken flat in interoperable formats.
Period of validity: identity cards should shall have a period of validity of ten years. Identity cards issued to minors may have a period of validity of five years. Where it is temporarily impossible to take fingerprints or a facial image, identity cards shall have a maximum period of validity of 3 months.
Member States may provide for a period of validity of more than 10 years for identity cards issued to persons over 75 years of age.
In the event a Member State decides to take fingerprints, children under the age of 12 years may be exempt from the requirement to give fingerprints. Children under the age of 6 years shall be exempt from the requirement to give fingerprints.
Phasing out: the amended text stated that phasing out previous formats of ID cards shall be done within eight years; cards that are not machine-readable and thus less secure shall be phased out within five years.
Collection of biometric identifiers: the biometric identifiers shall be collected solely by qualified and duly authorised staff designated by the national authorities responsible for issuing identity cards or residence permit, for the sole purpose of being integrated into the highly secure storage medium.