The EC Offers Mandatory Fingerprints in ID Cards

The European Commission proposes to make the fingerprints obligatory in the identity cards of EU citizens as the next measure in the fight against counterfeiting of documents, Emil Radev, MEP, told BNR.

"Today, some 80 million Europeans have identity cards that are non-machine-readable and without biometric data. The propesed changes are designed to prevent terrorists and criminals from using counterfeit documents to enter the EU from non-EU countries." he explains.

Radev said that the idea is not to introduce ID cards in countries where they are not mandatory but to modernize existing documents. Regarding the possible deadlines, the MEP said:

"European citizens who have machine-readable documents until their expiration, namely 5 years, will be retained, and those on paper, like Italians, will have to change within 2 years."

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