98/700/JHA: Joint Action of 3 December 1998 adopted by the Council on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union concerning the setting up of a European Image Archiving System (FADO)
Date: 1998-12-03
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: archives, cooperation in home affairs, data processing, joint action, transmission network

L 333/4

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Official Journal of the European Communities

9. 12. 98

JOINT ACTION

of 3 December 1998

adopted by the Council on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European
Union concerning the setting up of a European Image Archiving System (FADO)

(98/700/JHA)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

ports, travel documents, visas, or other identity docu-
ments,

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union, and in
particular Article K.3(2)(b) thereof,

Whereas Article K.1(3) of the Treaty provides that im-
migration policy and policy regarding nationals of third
countries are matters of common interest;

Article 1

HAS ADOPTED THIS JOINT ACTION:

Whereas the fight against false documents is an area
covered by immigration policy and police cooperation;
whereas the proliferation of genuine and false documents
necessitates frequent updating; whereas the fact that the
techniques used to produce genuine documents and their
counterfeits are increasingly sophisticated also neces-
sitates a high-quality medium;

Whereas the European Fraud Bulletin and the Handbook
of Genuine Documents do not fully meet the require-
ments of speed and accuracy of reproduction, which is
why the use of a computerised image archiving system,
with proper training for the staff concerned,
is a key
element in any overall strategy designed to meet the
needs of the Member States;

Whereas several Member States have computerised image
archiving systems which they are in the process of putting
into operation;

Whereas, in order to ensure a high level of control by the
Member States, it would be useful to introduce a compu-
terised image archiving system providing access to docu-
ment checkers in the Member States; whereas this system
should enable users to have at their disposal information
on any new forgery methods that are detected and on the
new genuine documents that are in circulation;

Whereas, in order to ensure that the information in the
system is compatible and uniform, it is necessary to draw
up procedures for the preparation of Member States’
contributions for inclusion in the system and procedures
for controlling and verifying such contributions;

Whereas this Joint Action does not affect the competence
of the Member States relating to the recognition of pass-

1. A European image archiving system shall be set up
for the purpose of exchanging, by computerised means
and within very short periods of time, information which
the Member States possess concerning genuine and false
documents that have been recorded in accordance with
the procedures set out in the Annex to this Joint Action.

2.
This system shall not replace or eliminate ordinary
exchanges on paper until all the Member States are in a
position to use the computerised system.

Article 2

The database of the system shall contain, among other
things, the following information:

(a)

images of false and forged documents;

(b) images of genuine documents;

(c) summary information on forgery techniques;

(d) summary information on security techniques.

Article 3

The setting up of the European system shall not prevent
each Member State from developing and using its own
national system corresponding to the requirements of the
national border services and the internal services respons-
ible for the verification of documents.

Article 4

The Council shall adopt without delay the technical spe-
cifications relating to compatibility with existing systems,
to the entering of information in the system and to the
procedures for controlling and verifying such information.

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Article 5

This Joint Action shall be published in the Official Journal and enter into force on the
day following that of its publication.

Article 1 shall apply no later than 12 months after the measures referred to in Article 4 are
adopted.

Done at Brussels, 3 December 1998.

For the Council

The President

K. SCHL(cid:153)GL

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Official Journal of the European Communities

9. 12. 98

ANNEX

EUROPEAN IMAGE ARCHIVING SYSTEM

A computerised system shall be created within the General Secretariat of the Council, which shall contain
genuine documents, together with false and forged documents.

The name of the European system is FADO (False and Authentic Documents).

1. Description of the system

— the system shall be read from one central service located in each Member State,

— the system shall be based on the Internet technology. The system shall ensure that the information can
be transmitted quickly to the national central services. As soon as the information has been given to the
General Secretariat of the Council, it shall be entered as quickly as possible into the FADO system.
Each Member State shall be responsible for adding these data to its own national system or copy of the
FADO system,

— the system shall be multilingual,

— the system shall be ‘user-friendly',

— the system shall be based on a very strict codification. The security of the information contained in the
computerised system shall be guaranteed. The system shall use special data lines between the General
Secretariat of the Council and the central services located in the Member States,

— within each Member State, the system shall be read through a secure internet from a central service.
The Member State may use the same system internally on its own territory (which means connecting
different stations at its various border control posts or other competent authorities). There shall be no
direct link between a workstation, other than a national central service, and the central point in the
General Secretariat. A mechanism shall be created to duplicate and update the system located in the
Member States from the FADO system (tape, removable discs, CD-ROM etc.),

— each Member State shall be free to develop its own national secure system for internal data transmis-

sion,

— the FADO system shall work through a network between the central point within the General
Secretariat and the central services located in each Member State, which will allow for the rapid
exchange of information,

— as documents will be sent electronically to enable them to be entered in the existing national systems,
the format used for the images shall be a standard one (JPEG, TIFF, BMP, etc.). The image quality shall
be the best one possible, but there shall also be a proper balance between the image quality, the size
and the compression,

— zoomed images shall, if necessary, be available for the important parts of the image,

— the system shall allow for a comparison on the screen between the original document and a false or

forged document,

— the system shall provide explanations on different forgery techniques and on security techniques,

— cross-references shall be necessary in order to enable the users to find all the information about a

document very quickly,

— first priority shall be given to the documents of the Member States, as well as to the documents of third
countries from where there are regular immigration flows to the Member States. The information in the
system shall be extended and updated to include all other documents, making it as complete as
possible,

— the system shall introduce a ‘flash' which would entail sending a warning to all Member States about a

particular false document via e-mail,

— the system shall have more than one level. The possibility of developing an additional level of query, in
order to include more detailed information for experts, shall be borne in mind from the outset,

— the system shall contain a special zone for the inclusion of documents which are not recognised by one

or more Member States.

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2. Costs of the system

The costs relating to the setting up and running of the FADO system will consist of the acquisition of
technical equipment and staffing costs. Since the FADO system is designed purely for the electronic
archiving and transmission of documents, which is currently done in hard-copy form, such costs will
constitute administrative expenditure for the Council, within the meaning of Article K.8(2), first sentence
of the Treaty on European Union.