On August 6th the Official Journal of the European Union published the opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States.

This opinion comes after the submission by the European Commission of a proposal of Regulation to the European Parliament and the Council in the view to amend Regulation (EC) Nº 2252/2004. At that moment, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) was not consulted, although it is set that he should be done so in those cases where individual's rights and freedoms with regard to the processing of personal data are at stake.

On December 13 th 2004, the Council adopted Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 on security standards and biometrics for passports and other travel documents issued by Member States in order to introduce biometric data in passports. 

Together with security elements, biometric data aim at strengthening the link between the passport and the holder of this document. On February 28 th 2005, the Commission adopted the first part of the technical specifications which relate to the storage of the facial image of the holder on a contact-less chip, and on June 28th 2006 , the Commission  adopted a second Decision relating to the additional storage of two fingerprints on the passport chip.

In regard to those biometrics requirements, the EDPS recognises the advantages that they provide, but also stressed the fact that those benefits on stringent safeguards being applied. The EDPS proposed a non exhaustive list of common obligations or requirements which need to be respected when biometric data are used in a system. These elements will contribute to avoid that the passport holder is to carry the burden of system imperfections, such as the impact of misidentifications or failure to enrol.

The EDPS therefore support certain biometric exemptions:

• In the case of fingerprints of children under a certain age, recommending that this limit of age should be established after a large scale and in-depth study where all the relevant stakeholders should by involved.
• The imperfections of fingerprints also concern the elderly,as it has been demonstrated that accuracy and usability of fingerprints decrease as people grow older. Therefore the EDPS recommends that an exemption should also be applied in those cases. The quality of elderly fingerprints for enrolment and matching should also be part of the suggested study.

As regard to the “One person – One passport” principle, the EDPS recognises the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommendation for the "One Person - One Passport" concept, specially as a solution for the lack of standardisation of family passports and the emergence of machine readable passports. The EDPS stresses that this concept may contribute to the fight against child traffic.

Besides, in view of the existing diversity under national laws as to documents required for the issuing of passports, the EDPS believes that the Commission should propose additional measures to harmonise the production and the use of such ‘breeder’ documents. The Commission should also propose further harmonisation measures in order to implement only the decentralised storage of biometric data collected for Member States' passports.

The EDPS concludes that the proposed amendments to existing rules on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States, give rise to similar issues as raised in previous opinions, although the EDPS welcomes that the need for fallback procedures has now been taken into account.