Biometric visas, like biometric passports, should improve security provided the fingerprints they include are reliable. Following an agreement with the Council approved by the EP Civil Liberties Committee on March 16th 2009, children under twelve will be exempted from the requirement to provide fingerprints. MEPs also recommended some management methods as to facilitate registration and access to VIS and to reduce costs for MS.

The European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee approved a second-reading agreement negotiated between the rapporteur and the Council of Ministers on the inclusion of biometric data in the European Visa Information System (VIS), by adopting a report by MEP Sarah Ludford.

During negotiations with the Council, MEPs successfully argued for children under twelve to be exempted from the requirement to give their fingerprints.  Studies on the reliability of fingerprints suggest that they can undergo change before that age and might therefore no longer match those on the visa. On January 14th this year, the European Parliament voted for a similar exemption for biometric passports.

European Visa Information System (VIS)

The European Visa Information System (VIS) is intended to facilitate the procedure for issuing visas while preventing "visa shopping", that is simultaneous applications for visas in more than one EU country. For the system to work well, common consular instructions are needed to ensure that all Member States issue visas on the same basis and that the visas contain the same features.
 
The purpose of biometric features - a photograph and ten fingerprints, as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization - is to enable the identity of visa applicants to be verified and to establish a reliable link between visa holders and their passports so as to prevent the use of false identities. Following this approach, the Council adopted on August 2008 a Decision enabling designated authorities of Member States and Europol to access for consultation the Visa Information System (VIS) for the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences.
 
MEPs would like to see new methods of organisation to ease the registration of visa applicants and reduce costs to Member States.  A special type of representation, purely to receive applications and collect biometric data, would be set up alongside diplomatic and consular representations.  In this way Member States would not need to equip every one of their consulates with biometric collection equipment.  These joint centres would also help strengthen consular co-operation locally.  However, Member States would remain free to provide their diplomatic and consular offices with such equipment if they wished.
 
In exceptional circumstances, Member State may co-operate with an external service provider if, because of a very high number of visa applications, it is impossible to organise the collection of biometric identifiers in appropriate conditions or to ensure sufficient geographical cover in the country concerned in another way.