Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-13-Speech-2-206"
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"en.20090113.25.2-206"2
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"Mr President, I am happy to support the proposals presented today.
I believe there is an urgent need to create a common set of standards for the verification of biometric data. Colleagues may not be aware that at present there are wide discrepancies between countries as to how rigorously, for example, they verify passport photographs. Many countries require that the citizen applying for a passport actually present him or herself in person, together with their documents and photographs, and in these cases the officials at the passport-issuing office can see if that person bears a resemblance to the photo presented.
However, in some countries – maybe most notably in the United Kingdom – applications by post are the norm, and the authenticity of the photo is only confirmed by a so-called ‘professional person’ who has known the applicant for at least two years. The list of persons eligible to do this in the United Kingdom makes for fairly interesting reading. This verification can be made by your optician or your dentist, but also by a professional photographer or a fire service official – no disrespect to members of these professions.
It is also interesting that fairly lax rules on verification exist in the United States. Verifications of photos for passports for first-time applicants can be carried out at so-called ‘acceptable facilities’. In fact, this means the staff at the local post office. It seems incredible for such a security-conscious country, whose citizens enjoy visa-free travel to Europe, to have such a system of verification.
So, in order to make passports secure, we really need to bring in much more reliable biometric data, namely fingerprints. We also need to ensure that the agency responsible for their collection and verification complies with the same standards, not only within the EU but also in those nations whose citizens do enjoy visa-free travel to Europe, to assure us that they too are meeting the same stringent requirements as are our citizens here in Europe."@en1
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