WRITTEN QUESTION E-1065/02 by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Council. Retaliatory measures against the USA.
Date: 2002-04-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, EU visa policy, European passport, United States, biometrics, border control, external border of the EU

12.12.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 309 E/79

Can the Council say what type of data will be exchanged between the administrations? Could such
interchange of data include details concerning the religious beliefs of Union or third country nationals?
Could such interchange of data take place between the national administrations of Member States and the
Turkish authorities, for example? Can the Council say what position the Greek delegation adopted during
the debate within the Council of Ministers on the subject of the interchange of data between the
administrations of the Member States and non-Member States?

Reply

(30 September 2002)

The general orientation agreed, whilst awaiting the opinion of the European Parliament, at the Transport/
from the Commission to
Telecommunications Council of 25/26 March 2002 concerned a proposal
introduce certain amendments to the existing Decisions Nos 1719/1999/EC and 1720/1999/EC which
establish the IDA II programme.

The Annex to the first of these two decisions contains a list of ‘projects of common interest’ to be
implemented under the programme. The Commission’s recent proposal and the Council’s general
orientation include only small changes to this list. The descriptions of these projects give a broad
indication of the type of data exchanged. It should be recalled that Article 7(c) of Decision 1720/1999/EC,
which the Commission does not propose to amend, includes provisions, inter alia, regarding personal data
protection and confidentiality in respect of such data.

Regarding the third countries to which the IDA programme may be opened, the Commission has
proposed to add Malta and Turkey to those mentioned in the existing decisions. The Council’s general
orientation supports this change.

(2002/C 309 E/091)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1065/02

by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Council

(17 April 2002)

Subject: Retaliatory measures against the USA

Is the European Council convinced that, in the interest of improved security, it is necessary to include on
travel documents biometric data such as fingerprints, retinal patterns, etc?

If so, what steps are being taken to incorporate such data into EU passports?

If not, what retaliatory measures does it plan to take against the US authorities for their proposed
abandonment of the US visa waiver programme for countries whose passports do not meet the above
requirements, as it will prove to be a non-tariff barrier impeding free movement of EU citizens to the
United States when no similar restrictions will apply to the movement of US citizens into the EU?

Reply

(30 September 2002)

Efforts are being made by the Member States’ authorities responsible for combating document fraud
inter alia to improve travel documents in order to combat fraud based on resemblance and to facilitate
automatic controls at frontiers by adding biometric features to such documents.

The Council has not yet received any initiative from the Commission along the lines suggested by the
Honourable Member.