Council Decision 2008/616/JHA of 23 June 2008 on the implementation of Decision 2008/615/JHA on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime
Date: 2008-06-23
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: cross-frontier data flow, data protection, fight against crime, police cooperation, technical regulations, terrorism

L 210/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

COUNCIL DECISION 2008/616/JHA

of 23 June 2008

on the implementation of Decision 2008/615/JHA on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation,
particularly in combating terrorism and cross-border crime

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to Article 33 of Council Decision 2008/615/
JHA (1),

Having regard to the initiative of
Germany,

the Federal Republic of

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),

Whereas:

(5) Having regard to technical capabilities, routine searches of
new DNA profiles will in principle be carried out by means
of single searches, and appropriate solutions for this will be
found at the technical level,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

CHAPTER I

GENERAL

Article 1

Aim

(1) On 23 June 2008 the Council

adopted Decision
2008/615/JHA on the
cross-border
cooperation, particularly in combating terrorism and
cross-border crime.

stepping up of

(2)

By means of Decision 2008/615/JHA, the basic elements of
the Treaty of 27 May 2005 between the Kingdom of
Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of
Spain, the French Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxem-
bourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of
Austria on the stepping up of cross-border cooperation,
particularly in combating terrorism, cross-border crime and
the Prüm Treaty), were
illegal migration (hereinafter
transposed into the legal
the European
Union.

framework of

(3) Article 33 of Decision 2008/615/JHA provides that the
Council is to adopt the measures necessary to implement
Decision 2008/615/JHA at
the Union in
accordance with the procedure laid down in the second
sentence of Article 34(2)(c) of the Treaty on European
Union. These measures are to be based on the Implement-
ing Agreement of 5 December 2006 concerning the
administrative and technical implementation and applica-
tion of the Prüm Treaty.

the level of

(4)

This Decision establishes those common normative provi-
sions which are indispensable for administrative and
technical implementation of the forms of cooperation set
out in Decision 2008/615/JHA. The Annex to this Decision
contains implementing provisions of a technical nature. In
addition, a separate Manual, containing exclusively factual
information to be provided by the Member States, will be
drawn up and kept up to date by the General Secretariat of
the Council.

this Decision is

The aim of
to lay down the necessary
administrative and technical provisions for the implementation
the
of Decision 2008/615/JHA,
automated exchange of DNA data, dactyloscopic data and
vehicle registration data, as set out in Chapter 2 of that Decision,
and other forms of cooperation, as set out in Chapter 5 of that
Decision.

in particular as

regards

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Decision:

(a)

(b)

(c)

‘search’ and ‘comparison’, as referred to in Articles 3, 4 and
9 of Decision 2008/615/JHA, mean the procedures by
which it is established whether there is a match between,
respectively, DNA data or dactyloscopic data which have
been communicated by one Member State and DNA data or
dactyloscopic data stored in the databases of one, several, or
all of the Member States;

‘automated searching’, as referred to in Article 12 of
Decision 2008/615/JHA, means an online access procedure
for consulting the databases of one, several, or all of the
Member States;

‘DNA profile’ means a letter or number code which
represents a set of identification characteristics of the non-
coding part of an analysed human DNA sample, i.e. the
particular molecular structure at the various DNA locations
(loci);

(1) See page 1 of this Official Journal.
(2) Opinion of 21 April 2008 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(d)

‘non-coding part of DNA’ means chromosome regions not
genetically expressed, i.e. not known to provide for any
functional properties of an organism;

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/13

(e)

‘DNA reference data’ mean DNA profile and reference
number;

Article 5

(f)

‘reference DNA profile’ means the DNA profile of an
identified person;

(g)

(h)

(i)

‘unidentified DNA profile’ means the DNA profile obtained
from traces collected during the investigation of criminal
offences and belonging to a person not yet identified;

‘note’ means a Member State's marking on a DNA profile in
its national database indicating that there has already been a
match for that DNA profile on another Member State's
search or comparison;

‘dactyloscopic data’ mean fingerprint images,
images of
fingerprint latents, palm prints, palm print latents and
templates of such images (coded minutiae), when they are
stored and dealt with in an automated database;

(j)

‘vehicle registration data’ mean the data-set as specified in
Chapter 3 of the Annex to this Decision;

Availability of automated data exchange

Member States shall take all necessary measures to ensure that
automated searching or comparison of DNA data, dactyloscopic
data and vehicle registration data is possible 24 hours a day and
seven days a week. In the event of a technical fault, the Member
States' national contact points shall
immediately inform each
other and shall agree on temporary alternative information
exchange arrangements in accordance with the legal provisions
applicable. Automated data exchange shall be re-established as
quickly as possible.

Article 6

Reference numbers for DNA data and dactyloscopic data

The reference numbers referred to in Article 2 and Article 8 of
Decision 2008/615/JHA shall consist of a combination of the
following:

(a)

a code allowing the Member States, in the case of a match,
to retrieve personal data and other information in their
databases in order to supply it to one, several or all of the
Member States in accordance with Article 5 or Article 10 of
Decision 2008/615/JHA;

(k)

‘individual case’, as referred to in Article 3(1), second
sentence, Article 9(1), second sentence and Article 12(1) of
Decision 2008/615/JHA, means a single investigation or
prosecution file. If such a file contains more than one DNA
profile, or one piece of dactyloscopic data or vehicle
registration data, they may be transmitted together as one
request.

(b)

a code to indicate the national origin of the DNA profile or
dactyloscopic data; and

(c) with respect to DNA data, a code to indicate the type of

DNA profile.

CHAPTER 2

COMMON PROVISIONS FOR DATA EXCHANGE

Article 3

Technical specifications

Member States shall observe common technical specifications in
connection with all requests and answers related to searches and
comparisons of DNA profiles, dactyloscopic data and vehicle
registration data. These technical specifications are laid down in
the Annex to this Decision.

Article 4

Communications network

The electronic exchange of DNA data, dactyloscopic data and
vehicle registration data between Member States shall take place
using the Trans European Services for Telematics between
(TESTA II) communications network and
Administrations
further developments thereof.

CHAPTER 3

DNA DATA

Article 7

Principles of DNA data exchange

1. Member States shall use existing standards for DNA data
exchange, such as the European Standard Set
(ESS) or the
Interpol Standard Set of Loci (ISSOL).

2. The transmission procedure,
in the case of automated
searching and comparison of DNA profiles, shall take place
within a decentralised structure.

3. Appropriate measures shall be taken to ensure confidenti-
ality and integrity for data being sent to other Member States,
including their encryption.

shall

take the necessary measures

4. Member States
to
guarantee the integrity of the DNA profiles made available or
sent for comparison to the other Member States and to ensure
that these measures comply with international standards such as
ISO 17025.

L 210/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

5. Member States shall use Member State codes in accordance
with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard.

Article 9

Article 8

Rules for requests and answers in connection with DNA
data

1. A request
for an automated search or comparison, as
referred to in Articles 3 or 4 of Decision 2008/615/JHA, shall
include only the following information:

(a)

the Member State code of the requesting Member State;

(b)

the date, time and indication number of the request;

(c) DNA profiles and their reference numbers;

Transmission procedure for automated searching of
unidentified DNA profiles in accordance with Article 3 of
Decision 2008/615/JHA

1.
If, in a search with an unidentified DNA profile, no match
has been found in the national database or a match has been
found with an unidentified DNA profile, the unidentified DNA
profile may then be transmitted to all other Member States'
databases and if, in a search with this unidentified DNA profile,
matches are
and/or
unidentified DNA profiles in other Member States' databases,
these matches shall be automatically communicated and the
DNA reference data transmitted to the requesting Member State;
if no matches can be found in other Member States' databases,
this shall be automatically communicated to the requesting
Member State.

found with reference DNA profiles

(d)

(e)

the types of DNA profiles transmitted (unidentified DNA
profiles or reference DNA profiles); and

information required for controlling the database systems
and quality control for the automatic search processes.

If, in a search with an unidentified DNA profile, a match is
2.
found in other Member States' databases, each Member State
concerned may insert a note to this effect in its national database.

2. The answer (matching report) to the request referred to in
paragraph 1 shall contain only the following information:

(a)

an indication as to whether there were one or more
matches (hits) or no matches (no hits);

(b)

the date, time and indication number of the request;

(c)

the date, time and indication number of the answer;

(d)

the Member State codes of the requesting and requested
Member States;

(e)

(f)

the reference numbers of the requesting and requested
Member States;

the type of DNA profiles transmitted (unidentified DNA
profiles or reference DNA profiles);

(g)

the requested and matching DNA profiles; and

(h)

information required for controlling the database systems
and quality control for the automatic search processes.

3. Automated notification of a match shall only be provided if
the automated search or comparison has resulted in a match of a
minimum number of loci. This minimum is set out in Chapter 1
of the Annex to this Decision.

Article 10

Transmission procedure for automated search of reference
DNA profiles in accordance with Article 3 of Decision
2008/615/JHA

If, in a search with a reference DNA profile, no match has been
found in the national database with a reference DNA profile or a
match has been found with an unidentified DNA profile, this
reference DNA profile may then be transmitted to all other
Member States' databases and if, in a search with this reference
DNA profile, matches are found with reference DNA profiles
and/or unidentified DNA profiles in other Member States'
databases, these matches shall be automatically communicated
and the DNA reference data transmitted to the requesting
Member State; if no matches can be found in other Member
States' databases, it shall be automatically communicated to the
requesting Member State.

Article 11

Transmission procedure for automated comparison of
unidentified DNA profiles in accordance with Article 4 of
Decision 2008/615/JHA

4. The Member States shall ensure that requests comply with
declarations
to Article 2(3) of Decision
2008/615/JHA. These declarations shall be reproduced in the
Manual referred to in Article 18(2) of this Decision.

issued pursuant

1.
If, in a comparison with unidentified DNA profiles, matches
are found in other Member States' databases with reference DNA
profiles and/or unidentified DNA profiles, these matches shall be
automatically communicated and the DNA reference data
transmitted to the requesting Member State.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/15

If, in a comparison with unidentified DNA profiles, matches
2.
are found in other Member States' databases with unidentified
DNA profiles or reference DNA profiles, each Member State
concerned may insert a note to this effect in its national database.

CHAPTER 4

DACTYLOSCOPIC DATA

Article 12

2. The requested Member State shall conduct searches in the
order in which requests are received. Requests shall be processed
within 24 hours by a fully automated procedure. The requesting
Member State may,
law so prescribes, ask for
accelerated processing of its requests and the requested Member
State shall conduct these searches without delay. If deadlines
cannot be met for reasons of force majeure, the comparison shall
be carried out without delay as soon as the impediments have
been removed.

if its national

CHAPTER 5

Principles for the exchange of dactyloscopic data

VEHICLE REGISTRATION DATA

1. The digitalisation of dactyloscopic data and their transmis-
sion to the other Member States shall be carried out
in
accordance with the uniform data format specified in Chapter 2
of the Annex to this Decision.

2.
Each Member State shall ensure that the dactyloscopic data it
transmits are of sufficient quality for a comparison by the
automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS).

3. The transmission procedure for the exchange of dactylo-
scopic data shall take place within a decentralised structure.

4. Appropriate measures
the
confidentiality and integrity of dactyloscopic data being sent to
other Member States, including their encryption.

taken to ensure

shall be

5. The Member States shall use Member State codes in
accordance with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard.

Article 13

Search capacities for dactyloscopic data

1.
Each Member State shall ensure that its search requests do
not exceed the search capacities specified by the requested
Member State. Member States shall submit declarations as
referred to in Article 18(2) to the General Secretariat of the
Council in which they lay down their maximum search capacities
per day for dactyloscopic data of identified persons and for
dactyloscopic data of persons not yet identified.

2. The maximum numbers of candidates accepted for verifica-
tion per transmission are set out in Chapter 2 of the Annex to
this Decision.

Article 14

Rules for requests and answers in connection with
dactyloscopic data

Article 15

Principles of automated searching of vehicle registration
data

1.
For automated searching of vehicle registration data Member
States shall use a version of the European Vehicle and Driving
Licence Information System (Eucaris)
software application
especially designed for the purposes of Article 12 of Decision
2008/615/JHA, and amended versions of this software.

2. Automated searching of vehicle registration data shall take
place within a decentralised structure.

3. The information exchanged via the Eucaris system shall be
transmitted in encrypted form.

4. The data elements of the vehicle registration data to be
exchanged are specified in Chapter 3 of the Annex to this
Decision.

In the

5.
implementation of Article 12 of Decision
2008/615/JHA, Member States may give priority to searches
related to combating serious crime.

Article 16

Costs

Each Member State shall bear
the costs arising from the
administration, use and maintenance of the Eucaris software
application referred to in Article 15(1).

CHAPTER 6

POLICE COOPERATION

Article 17

1. The requested Member State shall check the quality of the
transmitted dactyloscopic data without delay by a fully
automated procedure. Should the data be unsuitable for an
automated comparison, the requested Member State shall inform
the requesting Member State without delay.

1.
In accordance with Chapter 5 of Decision 2008/615/JHA,
and in particular with the declarations submitted pursuant to
Articles 17(4), 19(2), and 19(4) of that Decision, each Member
State shall designate one or more contact points in order to allow

Joint patrols and other joint operations

L 210/16

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

other Member States to address competent authorities and each
Member State may specify its procedures for setting up joint
patrols and other joint operations, its procedures for initiatives
from other Member States with regard to those operations, as
well as other practical aspects, and operational modalities in
relation to those operations.

2. The General Secretariat of the Council shall compile and
keep up to date a list of the contact points and shall inform the
competent authorities about any change to that list.

3. The competent authorities of each Member State may take
the initiative to set up a joint operation. Before the start of a
the competent authorities referred to in
specific operation,
paragraph 2 shall make written or verbal arrangements that may
cover details such as:

(a)

the competent authorities of the Member States for the
operation;

CHAPTER 7

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 18

Annex and Manual

Further details concerning the technical and administrative
1.
implementation of Decision 2008/615/JHA are set out in the
Annex to this Decision.

2. A Manual shall be prepared and kept up to date by the
General Secretariat of the Council, comprising exclusively factual
information provided by the Member States through declarations
made pursuant to Decision 2008/615/JHA or this Decision or
through notifications made to the General Secretariat of the
Council. The Manual shall be in the form of a Council
Document.

(b)

the specific purpose of the operation;

Article 19

(c)

the host Member State where the operation is to take place;

Independent data protection authorities

(d)

the geographical area of the host Member State where the
operation is to take place;

(e)

the period covered by the operation;

(f)

the specific assistance to be provided by the seconding
Member State(s)
including
officers or other officials, material and financial elements;

to the host Member State,

(g)

the officers participating in the operation;

(h)

the officer in charge of the operation;

(i)

(j)

(k)

(l)

the powers that the officers and other officials of
the
seconding Member State(s) may exercise in the host
Member State during the operation;

the particular arms, ammunition and equipment that the
seconding officers may use during the operation in
accordance with Decision 2008/615/JHA;

the logistic modalities as regards transport, accommodation
and security;

the allocation of the costs of the joint operation if it differs
from that provided in the first sentence of Article 34 of
Decision 2008/615/JHA;

(m) any other possible elements required.

4. The declarations, procedures and designations provided for
in this Article shall be reproduced in the Manual referred to in
Article 18(2).

Member States shall, in accordance with Article 18(2) of this
Decision, inform the General Secretariat of the Council of the
independent data protection authorities or the judicial auth-
orities as referred to in Article 30(5) of Decision 2008/615/JHA.

Article 20

Preparation of decisions as referred to in Article 25(2) of
Decision 2008/615/JHA

1. The Council shall take a decision as referred to in Arti-
cle 25(2) of Decision 2008/615/JHA on the basis of an
evaluation report which shall be based on a questionnaire.

2. With respect to the automated data exchange in accordance
with Chapter 2 of Decision 2008/615/JHA, the evaluation report
shall also be based on an evaluation visit and a pilot run that
shall be carried out when the Member State concerned has
informed the General Secretariat in accordance with the first
sentence of Article 36(2) of Decision 2008/615/JHA.

Further details of the procedure are set out in Chapter 4 of

3.
the Annex to this Decision.

Article 21

Evaluation of the data exchange

1. An evaluation of the administrative, technical and financial
application of the data exchange pursuant to Chapter 2 of
Decision 2008/615/JHA, and in particular
the
mechanism of Article 15(5), shall be carried out on a regular
basis. The evaluation shall relate to those Member States already
applying Decision 2008/615/JHA at the time of the evaluation
and shall be carried out with respect to the data categories for

the use of

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/17

which data exchange has started among the Member States
concerned. The evaluation shall be based on reports of the
respective Member States.

Article 23

Implementation

Further details of the procedure are set out in Chapter 4 of

2.
the Annex to this Decision.

Member States shall take the necessary measures to comply with
the provisions of this Decision within the periods referred to in
Article 36(1) of Decision 2008/615/JHA.

Article 22

Article 24

Application

Relationship with the Implementing Agreement of the
Prüm Treaty

This Decision shall take effect 20 days following its publication
in the Official Journal of the European Union.

For the Member States bound by the Prüm Treaty, the relevant
provisions of this Decision and the Annex hereto once fully
implemented shall apply instead of the corresponding provisions
contained in the Implementing Agreement of the Prüm Treaty.
the Implementing Agreement shall
Any other provisions of
remain applicable between the contracting parties of the Prüm
Treaty.

Done at Luxembourg, 23 June 2008.

For the Council

The President

I. JARC

L 210/18

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

ANNEX

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: Exchange of DNA-Data

1.

DNA related forensic issues, matching rules and algorithms

1.1. Properties of DNA-profiles

1.2. Matching rules

1.3. Reporting rules

2. Member State code number table

3.

Functional analysis

3.1. Availability of the system

3.2. Second step

4.

DNA interface control document

4.1.

Introduction

4.2. XML structure definition

5.

Application, security and communication architecture

5.1. Overview

5.2. Upper level architecture

5.3. Security standards and data protection

5.4. Protocols and standards to be used for encryption mechanism: s/MIME and related packages

5.5. Application architecture

5.6. Protocols and standards to be used for application architecture

5.7. Communication environment

CHAPTER 2: Exchange of dactyloscopic data (interface control document)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

File content overview

Record format

Type-1 logical record: the file header

Type-2 logical record: descriptive text

Type-4 logical record: high resolution greyscale image

Type-9 logical record: minutiae record

Type-13 variable-resolution latent image record

Type-15 variable-resolution palmprint image record

Appendices to Chapter 2 (exchange of dactyloscopic data)

9.1. ASCII Separator Codes

9.2. Calculation of Alpha-numeric Check Character

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/19

9.3. Character codes

9.4. Transaction summary

9.5. Type-1 record definitions

9.6. Type-2 record definitions

9.7. Greyscale compression codes

9.8. Mail specification

CHAPTER 3: Exchange of vehicle registration data

1.

Common data-set for automated search of vehicle registration data

1.1. Definitions

1.2. Vehicle/owner/holder search

2.

Data Security

2.1. Overview

2.2. Security features related to message exchange

2.3. Security features not related to message exchange

3.

Technical conditions of the data exchange

3.1. General description of the Eucaris application

3.2. Functional and non-functional requirements

CHAPTER 4: Evaluation

1.

Evaluation procedure according to Article 20 (Preparation of Decisions according to Article 25(2) of Decision
2008/615/JHA)

1.1. Questionnaire

1.2. Pilot run

1.3. Evaluation visit

1.4. Report to the Council

2.

Evaluation procedure according to Article 21

2.1. Statistics and Report

2.2. Revision

3.

Expert meetings

L 210/20

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

CHAPTER 1: Exchange of DNA-Data

1.

DNA related forensic issues, matching rules and algorithms

1.1.

Properties of DNA-profiles

The DNA profile may contain 24 pairs of numbers representing the alleles of 24 loci which are also used in the
DNA-procedures of Interpol. The names of these loci are shown in the following table:

VWA

TPOX

TH01

D21S11

FGA

D8S1179

D3S1358

D18S51

Amelogenin

CSF1P0

D13S317

D7S820

D5S818

D16S539

D2S1338

D19S433

Penta D

Penta E

FES

F13A1

F13B

SE33

CD4

GABA

The seven grey loci in the top row are both the present European Standard Set (ESS) and the Interpol Standard Set
of Loci (ISSOL).

Inclusion Rules:

The DNA-profiles made available by the Member States for searching and comparison as well as the DNA-profiles
sent out for searching and comparison must contain at least six full designated (1) loci and may contain additional
loci or blanks depending on their availability. The reference DNA profiles must contain at least six of the seven
ESS of loci. In order to raise the accuracy of matches, all available alleles shall be stored in the indexed DNA
profile database and be used for searching and comparison. Each Member State should implement as soon as
practically possible any new ESS of loci adopted by the EU.

Mixed profiles are not allowed, so that the allele values of each locus will consist of only two numbers, which may
be the same in the case of homozygosity at a given locus.

Wild-cards and Micro-variants are to be dealt with using the following rules:

— Any non-numerical value except amelogenin contained in the profile (e.g. ‘o’, ‘f’, ‘r’, ‘na’, ‘nr’ or ‘un’) has to be

automatically converted for the export to a wild card (*) and searched against all,

— Numerical values ‘0’, ‘1’ or ‘99’ contained in the profile have to be automatically converted for the export to a

wild card (*) and searched against all,

— If three alleles are provided for one locus the first allele will be accepted and the remaining two alleles have to

be automatically converted for the export to a wild card (*) and searched against all,

— When wild card values are provided for allele 1 or 2 then both permutations of the numerical value given for

the locus will be searched (e.g. 12, * could match against 12,14 or 9,12),

— Pentanucleotide (Penta D, Penta E and CD4) micro-variants will be matched according to the following:

x.1 = x, x.1, x.2

x.2 = x.1, x.2, x.3

x.3 = x.2, x.3, x.4

x.4 = x.3, x.4, x + 1,

— Tetranucleotide (the rest of the loci are tetranucleotides) micro-variants will be matched according to the

following:

x.1 = x, x.1, x.2

x.2 = x.1, x.2, x.3

x.3 = x.2, x.3, x + 1.

(1)

‘Full designated’ means the handling of rare allelle values is included.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/21

1.2.

Matching rules

The comparison of two DNA-profiles will be performed on the basis of the loci for which a pair of allele values is
available in both DNA-profiles. At least six full designated loci (exclusive of amelogenin) must match between
both DNA-profiles before a hit response is provided.

A full match (Quality 1) is defined as a match, when all allele values of the compared loci commonly contained in
the requesting and requested DNA-profiles are the same. A near match is defined as a match, when the value of
only one of all the compared alleles is different in the two DNA profiles (Quality 2, 3 and 4). A near match is only
accepted if there are at least six full designated matched loci in the two compared DNA profiles.

The reason for a near match may be:

— a human typing error at the point of entry of one of the DNA-profiles in the search request or the DNA-

database,

— an allele-determination or allele-calling error during the generation procedure of the DNA-profile.

1.3.

Reporting rules

Both full matches, near matches and ‘no hits’ will be reported.

The matching report will be sent to the requesting national contact point and will also be made available to the
requested national contact point (to enable it to estimate the nature and number of possible follow-up requests for
further available personal data and other information associated with the DNA-profile corresponding to the hit in
accordance with Articles 5 and 10 of Decision 2008/615/JHA).

2.

Member State code number table

In accordance with Decision 2008/615/JHA, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code are used for setting up the domain names
and other configuration parameters required in the Prüm DNA data exchange applications over a closed network.

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are the following two-letter Member State codes.

Member State names

Code

Member State names

Code

Belgium

Bulgaria

Czech Republic

Denmark

Germany

Estonia

Greece

Spain

France

Ireland

Italy

Cyprus

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Hungary

Malta

Netherlands

Austria

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Finland

Sweden

United Kingdom

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

EL

ES

FR

IE

IT

CY

LV

LT

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SK

SI

FI

SE

UK

L 210/22

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

3.

Functional analysis

3.1.

Availability of the system

Requests pursuant to Article 3 of Decision 2008/615/JHA should reach the targeted database in the chronological
order that each request was sent, responses should be dispatched to reach the requesting Member State within 15
minutes of the arrival of requests.

3.2.

Second step

When a Member State receives a report of match, its national contact point is responsible for comparing the
values of the profile submitted as a question and the values of the profile(s) received as an answer to validate and
check the evidential value of the profile. National contact points can contact each other directly for validation
purposes.

Legal assistance procedures start after validation of an existing match between two profiles, on the basis of a ‘full
match’ or a ‘near match’ obtained during the automated consultation phase.

4.

DNA interface control document

4.1.

Introduction

4.1.1.

O b j e c t i v e s

This Chapter defines the requirements for the exchange of DNA profile information between the DNA database
systems of all Member States. The header fields are defined specifically for the Prüm DNA exchange, the data part
is based on the DNA profile data part in the XML schema defined for the Interpol DNA exchange gateway.

Data are exchanged by SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and other state-of-the-art technologies, using a
central relay mail server provided by the network provider. The XML file is transported as mail body.

4.1.2.

S c o p e

This ICD defines the content of the message (mail) only. All network-specific and mail-specific topics are defined
uniformly in order to allow a common technical base for the DNA data exchange.

This includes:

— the format of the subject field in the message to enable/allow for an automated processing of the messages,

— whether content encryption is necessary and if yes which methods should be chosen,

— the maximum length of messages.

4.1.3.

X M L s t r u c t u r e a n d p r i n c i p l e s

The XML message is structured into;

— header part, which contains information about the transmission, and

— data part, which contains profile specific information, as well as the profile itself.

The same XML schema shall be used for request and response.

For the purpose of complete checks of unidentified DNA profiles (Article 4 of Decision 2008/615/JHA) it shall be
possible to send a batch of profiles in one message. A maximum number of profiles within one message must be
defined. The number is depending from the maximum allowed mail size and shall be defined after selection of the
mail server.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/23

XML example:

<?version=“1.0” standalone=“yes”?>

<PRUEMDNAx xmlns:msxsl=“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt”

xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”>

<header>

(…)

</header>

<datas>

(…)

</datas>

[<datas> datas structure repeated, if multiple profiles sent by (….) a single SMTP message, only allowed for Arti-
cle 4 cases

</datas>]

</PRUEMDNA>

4.2.

XML structure definition

The following definitions are for documentation purposes and better readability, the real binding information is
provided by an XML schema file (PRUEM DNA.xsd).

4.2.1.

S c h e m a P R U E M D N A x

It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

header

datas

PRUEM_header

Occurs: 1

PRUEM_datas

Occurs: 1 … 500

4.2.2.

C o n t e n t o f h e a d e r s t r u c t u r e

4.2.2.1.

PRUEM header

This is a structure describing the XML file header. It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

direction

ref

generator

schema_version

requesting

requested

PRUEM_header_dir

Direction of message flow

String

String

String

Reference of the XML file

Generator of XML file

Version number of schema to use

PRUEM_header_info

Requesting Member State info

PRUEM_header_info

Requested Member State info

4.2.2.2.

PRUEM_header dir

Type of data contained in message, value can be:

Value

Description

R

Request

L 210/24

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Value

Description

A

Answer

4.2.2.3.

PRUEM header info

Structure to describe Member State as well as message date/time. It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

source_isocode

destination_isocode

request_id

date

time

String

String

String

Date

Time

ISO 3166-2 code of the requesting Member State

ISO 3166-2 code of the requested Member State

unique Identifier for a request

Date of creation of message

Time of creation of message

4.2.3.

C o n t e n t o f P R U E M P r o f i l e d a t a

4.2.3.1.

PRUEM_datas

This is a structure describing the XML profile data part. It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

reqtype

date

type

result

agency

profile_ident

message

profile

match_id

quality

hitcount

rescount

PRUEM request type

Type of request (Article 3 or 4)

Date

Date profile stored

PRUEM_datas_type

Type of profile

PRUEM_datas_result

Result of request

String

String

String

Name of corresponding unit responsible for the profile

Unique Member State profile ID

Error Message, if result = E

IPSG_DNA_profile

If direction = A (Answer) AND result ≠ H (Hit) empty

String

In case of a HIT PROFILE_ID of the requesting profile

PRUEM_hitquality_type

Quality of Hit

Integer

Integer

Count of matched Alleles

Count of matched profiles. If direction = R (Request),
then empty. If quality!=0 (the original requested
profile), then empty.

4.2.3.2.

PRUEM_request_type

Type of data contained in message, value can be:

Value

Description

3

4

Requests pursuant to Article 3 of Decision 2008/615/JHA

Requests pursuant to Article 4 of Decision 2008/615/JHA

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/25

4.2.3.3.

PRUEM_hitquality_type

Value

Description

Referring original requesting profile:
Case ‘No Hit’: original requesting profile sent back only;
Case ‘Hit’: original requesting profile and matched profiles sent back.

Equal in all available alleles without wildcards

Equal in all available alleles with wildcards

Hit with Deviation (Microvariant)

Hit with mismatch

0

1

2

3

4

4.2.3.4.

PRUEM_data_type

Type of data contained in message, value can be:

Value

Description

P

S

Person profile

Stain

4.2.3.5.

PRUEM_data_result

Type of data contained in message, value can be:

Value

Description

Undefined, If direction = R (request)

Hit

No Hit

Error

U

H

N

E

4.2.3.6.

IPSG_DNA_profile

Structure describing a DNA profile. It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

ess_issol

IPSG_DNA_ISSOL

Group of loci corresponding to the ISSOL
(standard group of Loci of Interpol)

additional_loci

IPSG_DNA_additional_loci

Other loci

marker

profile_id

String

String

Method used to generate of DNA

Unique identifier for DNA profile

4.2.3.7.

IPSG_DNA_ISSOL

Structure containing the loci of ISSOL (Standard Group of Interpol loci). It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

vwa

th01

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

Locus vwa

Locus th01

L 210/26

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Fields

Type

Description

d21s11

fga

d8s1179

d3s1358

d18s51

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

amelogenin

IPSG_DNA_locus

Locus d21s11

Locus fga

Locus d8s1179

Locus d3s1358

Locus d18s51

Locus amelogin

4.2.3.8.

IPSG_DNA_additional_loci

Structure containing the other loci. It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

tpox

csf1po

d13s317

d7s820

d5s818

d16s539

d2s1338

d19s433

penta_d

penta_e

fes

f13a1

f13b

se33

cd4

gaba

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

IPSG_DNA_locus

Locus tpox

Locus csf1po

Locus d13s317

Locus d7s820

Locus d5s818

Locus d16s539

Locus d2s1338

Locus d19s433

Locus penta_d

Locus penta_e

Locus fes

Locus f13a1

Locus f13b

Locus se33

Locus cd4

Locus gaba

4.2.3.9.

IPSG_DNA_locus

Structure describing a locus. It contains the following fields:

Fields

Type

Description

low_allele

high_allele

String

String

Lowest value of an allele

Highest value of an allele

5.

Application, security and communication architecture

5.1.

Overview

In implementing applications for the DNA data exchange within the framework of Decision 2008/615/JHA, a
common communication network shall be used, which will be logically closed among the Member States. In
order to exploit this common communication infrastructure of sending requests and receiving replies in a more

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/27

effective way, an asynchronous mechanism to convey DNA and dactyloscopic data requests in a wrapped SMTP
e-mail message is adopted. In fulfilment of security concerns, the mechanism s/MIME as extension to the SMTP
functionality will be used to establish a true end-to-end secure tunnel over the network.

is used as the
The operational TESTA (Trans European Services for Telematics between Administrations)
communication network for data exchange among the Member States. TESTA is under the responsibility of the
European Commission. Taking into account that national DNA databases and the current national access points
of TESTA may be located on different sites in the Member States, access to TESTA may be set up either by:

1.

2.

using the existing national access point or establishing a new national TESTA access point; or by

setting up a secure local link from the site where the DNA database is located and managed by the
competent national agency to the existing national TESTA access point.

The protocols and standards deployed in the implementation of Decision 2008/615/JHA applications comply
with the open standards and meet the requirements imposed by national security policy makers of the Member
States.

5.2.

Upper Level Architecture

In the scope of Decision 2008/615/JHA, each Member State will make its DNA data available to be exchanged
with and/or searched by other Member States in conformity with the standardised common data format. The
architecture is based upon an any-to-any communication model. There exists neither a central computer server
nor a centralised database to hold DNA profiles.

Figure 1: Topology of DNA Data Exchange

In addition to the fulfilment of national legal constraints at Member States' sites, each Member State may decide
what kind of hardware and software should be deployed for the configuration at its site to comply with the
requirements set out in Decision 2008/615/JHA.

5.3.

Security Standards and Data Protection

Three levels of security concerns have been considered and implemented.

L 210/28

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

5.3.1.

D a t a L e v e l

DNA profile data provided by each Member State have to be prepared in compliance with a common data
protection standard, so that requesting Member States will receive an answer mainly to indicate HIT or NO-HIT
along with an identification number in case of a HIT, which does not contain any personal information. The
further investigation after the notification of a HIT will be conducted at bilateral level pursuant to the existing
national legal and organisational regulations of the respective Member States' sites.

5.3.2.

C o m m u n i c a t i o n L e v e l

Messages containing DNA profile information (requesting and replying) will be encrypted by means of a state-of-
the-art mechanism in conformity with open standards, such as s/MIME, before they are forwarded to the sites of
other Member States.

5.3.3.

T r a n s m i s s i o n L e v e l

All encrypted messages containing DNA profile information will be forwarded onto other Member States' sites
through a virtual private tunnelling system administered by a trusted network provider at the international level
and the secure links to this tunnelling system under the national responsibility. This virtual private tunnelling
system does not have a connection point with the open Internet.

5.4.

Protocols and Standards to be used for encryption mechanism: s/MIME and related packages

The open standard s/MIME as extension to de facto e-mail standard SMTP will be deployed to encrypt messages
containing DNA profile information. The protocol s/MIME (V3) allows signed receipts, security labels, and secure
mailing lists and is layered on Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS), an IETF specification for cryptographic
protected messages. It can be used to digitally sign, digest, authenticate or encrypt any form of digital data.

The underlying certificate used by s/MIME mechanism has to be in compliance with X.509 standard. In order to
ensure common standards and procedures with other Prüm applications, the processing rules for s/MIME
encryption operations or to be applied under various COTS (Commercial Product of the Shelves) environments,
are as follows:

— the sequence of the operations is: first encryption and then signing,

— the encryption algorithm AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with 256 bit key length and RSA with 1 024

bit key length shall be applied for symmetric and asymmetric encryption respectively,

— the hash algorithm SHA-1 shall be applied.

s/MIME functionality is built into the vast majority of modern e-mail software packages including Outlook,
Mozilla Mail as well as Netscape Communicator 4.x and inter-operates among all major e-mail software packages.

Because of s/MIME's easy integration into national IT infrastructure at all Member States' sites, it is selected as a
viable mechanism to implement the communication security level. For achieving the goal ‘Proof of Concept’ in a
more efficient way and reducing costs the open standard JavaMail API is however chosen for prototyping DNA
data exchange. JavaMail API provides simple encryption and decryption of e-mails using s/MIME and/or OpenPGP.
The intent is to provide a single, easy-to-use API for e-mail clients that want to send and received encrypted e-mail
in either of the two most popular e-mail encryption formats. Therefore any state-of-the-art implementations to
JavaMail API will suffice for the requirements set by Decision 2008/615/JHA, such as the product of Bouncy
Castle JCE (Java Cryptographic Extension), which will be used to implement s/MIME for prototyping DNA data
exchange among all Member States.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/29

5.5.

Application Architecture

Each Member State will provide the other Member States with a set of standardised DNA profile data which are in
conformity with the current common ICD. This can be done either by providing a logical view over individual
national database or by establishing a physical exported database (indexed database).

The four main components: E-mail server/s/MIME, Application Server, Data Structure Area for fetching/feeding
data and registering incoming/outgoing messages, and Match Engine implement the whole application logic in a
product-independent way.

In order to provide all Member States with an easy integration of the components into their respective national
sites, the specified common functionality has been implemented by means of open source components, which
could be selected by each Member State depending on its national IT policy and regulations. Because of the
independent features to be implemented to get access to indexed databases containing DNA profiles covered by
Decision 2008/615/JHA, each Member State can freely select its hardware and software platform, including
database and operating systems.

A prototype for the DNA Data Exchange has been developed and successfully tested over the existing common
network. The version 1.0 has been deployed in the productive environment and is used for daily operations.
Member States may use the jointly developed product but may also develop their own products. The common
product components will be maintained, customised and further developed according to changing IT, forensic
and/or functional police requirements.

Figure 2: Overview Application Topology

5.6.

Protocols and Standards to be used for application architecture:

5.6.1.

X M L

The DNA data exchange will fully exploit XML-schema as attachment to SMTP e-mail messages. The eXtensible
Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose
markup languages, capable of describing many different kinds of data. The description of the DNA profile suitable
for exchange among all Member States has been done by means of XML and XML schema in the ICD document.

5.6.2.

O D B C

Open DataBase Connectivity provides a standard software API method for accessing database management
systems and making it independent of programming languages, database and operating systems. ODBC has,
however, certain drawbacks. Administering a large number of client machines can involve a diversity of drivers
and DLLs. This complexity can increase system administration overhead.

L 210/30

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

5.6.3.

J D B C

Java DataBase Connectivity (JDBC) is an API for the Java programming language that defines how a client may
access a database. In contrast to ODBC, JDBC does not require to use a certain set of local DLLs at the Desktop.

The business logic to process DNA profile requests and replies at each Member States' site is described in the
following diagram. Both requesting and replying flows interact with a neutral data area comprising different data
pools with a common data structure.

Figure 3: Overview Application Workflow at each Member State's site

5.7.

Communication Environment

5.7.1.

C o m m o n C o m m u n i c a t i o n N e t w o r k : T E S T A a n d i t s f o l l o w - u p i n f r a s t r u c t u r e

The application DNA data exchange will exploit the e-mail, an asynchronous mechanism, to send requests and to
receive replies among the Member States. As all Member States have at least one national access point to the
TESTA network, the DNA data exchange will be deployed over the TESTA network. TESTA provides a number of
added-value services through its e-mail relay. In addition to hosting TESTA specific e-mail boxes, the infrastructure
can implement mail distribution lists and routing policies. This allows TESTA to be used as a clearing house for
messages addressed to administrations connected to the EU wide Domains. Virus check mechanisms may also be
put in place.

The TESTA e-mail relay is built on a high availability hardware platform located at the central TESTA application
facilities and protected by firewall. The TESTA Domain Name Services (DNS) will resolve resource locators to IP
addresses and hide addressing issues from the user and from applications.

5.7.2.

S e c u r i t y C o n c e r n

The concept of a VPN (Virtual Private Network) has been implemented within the framework of TESTA. Tag
Switching Technology used to build this VPN will evolve to support Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
standard developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/31

MPLS is an IETF standard technology that
speeds up network traffic flow by avoiding
packet analysis by intermediate routers
(hops). This is done on the basis of so-called
labels that are attached to packet by the edge
routers of the backbone, on the basis of
information stored in the forwarding infor-
mation base (FIB). Labels are also used to
implement virtual private networks (VPNs).

MPLS combines the benefits of layer 3 routing with the advantages of layer 2 switching. Because IP addresses are
not evaluated during transition through the backbone, MPLS does not impose any IP addressing limitations.

Furthermore e-mail messages over the TESTA will be protected by s/MIME driven encryption mechanism.
Without knowing the key and possessing the right certificate, nobody can decrypt messages over the network.

5.7.3.

P r o t o c o l s a n d S t a n d a r d s t o b e u s e d o v e r t h e c o m m u n i c a t i o n n e t w o r k

5.7.3.1.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is the de facto standard for e-mail transmission across the Internet. SMTP is a
relatively simple, text-based protocol, where one or more recipients of a message are specified and then the
message text is transferred. SMTP uses TCP port 25 upon the specification by the IETF. To determine the SMTP
server for a given domain name, the MX (Mail eXchange) DNS (Domain Name Systems) record is used.

Since this protocol started as purely ASCII text-based it did not deal well with binary files. Standards such as
MIME were developed to encode binary files for transfer through SMTP. Today, most SMTP servers support the
8BITMIME and s/MIME extension, permitting binary files to be transmitted almost as easily as plain text. The
processing rules for s/MIME operations are described in the section s/MIME (see Chapter 5.4).

SMTP is a ‘push’ protocol that does not allow one to ‘pull’ messages from a remote server on demand. To do this a
mail client must use POP3 or IMAP. Within the framework of implementing DNA data exchange it is decided to
use the protocol POP3.

5.7.3.2.

POP

Local e-mail clients use the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), an application-layer Internet standard protocol,
to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. By using the SMTP Submit profile of the SMTP
protocol, e-mail clients send messages across the Internet or over a corporate network. MIME serves as the
standard for attachments and non-ASCII text in e-mail. Although neither POP3 nor SMTP requires MIME-
formatted e-mail, essentially Internet e-mail comes MIME-formatted, so POP clients must also understand and use
MIME. The whole communication environment of Decision 2008/615/JHA will therefore include the components
of POP.

L 210/32

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

5.7.4.

N e t w o r k A d d r e s s A s s i g n m e n t

Operative environment

A dedicated block of C class subnet has currently been allocated by the European IP registration authority (RIPE)
to TESTA. Further address blocks may be allocated to TESTA in the future if required. The assignment of IP
addresses to Member States is based upon a geographical schema in Europe. The data exchange among Member
States within the framework of Decision 2008/615/JHA is operated over a European wide logically closed IP
network.

Testing Environment

In order to provide a smooth running environment for the daily operation among all connected Member States, it
is necessary to establish a testing environment over the closed network for new Member States which prepare to
join the operations. A sheet of parameters including IP addresses, network settings, e-mail domains as well as
application user accounts has been specified and should be set up at the corresponding Member State's site.
Moreover, a set of pseudo DNA profiles has been constructed for the test purposes.

5.7.5.

C o n f i g u r a t i o n P a r a m e t e r s

A secure e-mail system is set up using the eu-admin.net domain. This domain with the associated addresses will
not be accessible from a location not on the TESTA EU wide domain, because the names are only known on the
TESTA central DNS server, which is shielded from the Internet.

The mapping of these TESTA site addresses (host names) to their IP addresses is done by the TESTA DNS service.
For each Local Domain, a Mail entry will be added to this TESTA central DNS server, relaying all e-mail messages
sent to TESTA Local Domains to the TESTA central Mail Relay. This TESTA central Mail Relay will then forward
them to the specific Local Domain e-mail server using the Local Domain e-mail addresses. By relaying the e-mail
in this way, critical
information contained in e-mails will only pass the Europe - wide closed network
infrastructure and not the insecure Internet.

It is necessary to establish sub-domains (bold italics) at the sites of all Member States upon the following syntax:

‘application-type.pruem.Member State-code.eu-admin.net’, where:

‘Member State-code’ takes the value of one of the two letter-code Member State codes (i.e. AT, BE, etc.).

‘application-type’ takes one of the values: DNA and FP.

By applying the above syntax, the sub domains for the Member States are shown in the following table:

MS

Sub Domains

Comments

BE

dna.pruem.be.eu-admin.net

Setting up a secure local link to the existing TESTA II access
point

fp.pruem.be.eu-admin.net

BG

dna.pruem.bg.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.bg.eu-admin.net

CZ

dna.pruem.cz.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.cz.eu-admin.net

DK

dna.pruem.dk.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.dk.eu-admin.net

DE

dna.pruem.de.eu-admin.net

Using the existing TESTA II national access points

fp.pruem.de.eu-admin.net

EE

dna.pruem.ee.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.ee.eu-admin.net

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/33

MS

Sub Domains

Comments

IE

dna.pruem.ie.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.ie.eu-admin.net

EL

dna.pruem.el.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.el.eu-admin.net

ES

dna.pruem.es.eu-admin.net

Using the existing TESTA II national access point

fp.pruem.es.eu-admin.net

FR

dna.pruem.fr.eu-admin.net

Using the existing TESTA II national access point

fp.pruem.fr.eu-admin.net

IT

dna.pruem.it.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.it.eu-admin.net

CY

dna.pruem.cy.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.cy.eu-admin.net

LV

dna.pruem.lv.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.lv.eu-admin.net

LT

dna.pruem.lt.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.lt.eu-admin.net

LU

dna.pruem.lu.eu-admin.net

Using the existing TESTA II national access point

fp.pruem.lu.eu-admin.net

HU

dna.pruem.hu.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.hu.eu-admin.net

MT

dna.pruem.mt.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.mt.eu-admin.net

NL

dna.pruem.nl.eu-admin.net

Intending to establish a new TESTA II access point at the
NFI

fp.pruem.nl.eu-admin.net

AT

dna.pruem.at.eu-admin.net

Using the existing TESTA II national access point

fp.pruem.at.eu-admin.net

PL

dna.pruem.pl.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.pl.eu-admin.net

PT

dna.pruem.pt.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.pt.eu-admin.net

RO

dna.pruem.ro.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.ro.eu-admin.net

……

……

L 210/34

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

MS

Sub Domains

Comments

SI

dna.pruem.si.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.si.eu-admin.net

SK

dna.pruem.sk.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.sk.eu-admin.net

……

……

FI

dna.pruem.fi.eu-admin.net

[To be inserted]

fp.pruem.fi.eu-admin.net

SE

dna.pruem.se.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.se.eu-admin.net

UK

dna.pruem.uk.eu-admin.net

fp.pruem.uk.eu-admin.net

CHAPTER 2: Exchange of dactyloscopic data (interface control document)

The purpose of the following document interface Control Document is to define the requirements for the exchange of
dactyloscopic information between the Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) of the Member States. It is
based on the Interpol-Implementation of ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000 (INT-I, Version 4.22b).

This version shall cover all basic definitions for Logical Records Type-1, Type-2, Type-4, Type-9, Type-13 and Type-15
required for image and minutiæ based dactyloscopic processing.

1.

File Content Overview

A dactyloscopic file consists of several logical records. There are sixteen types of record specified in the original
ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000 standard. Appropriate ASCII separation characters are used between each record and the
fields and subfields within the records.

Only 6 record types are used to exchange information between the originating and the destination agency:

Type-1 →

Transaction information

Type-2 →

Alphanumeric persons/case data

Type-4 →

High resolution greyscale dactyloscopic images

Type-9 →

Minutiæ Record

Type-13 →

Variable resolution latent image record

Type-15 →

Variable resolution palmprint image record

1.1.

Type-1 — File header

This record contains routing information and information describing the structure of the rest of the file. This
record type also defines the types of transaction which fall under the following broad categories:

1.2.

Type-2 — Descriptive text

This record contains textual information of interest to the sending and receiving agencies.

1.3.

Type-4 — High resolution greyscale image

This record is used to exchange high resolution greyscale (eight bit) dactyloscopic images sampled at 500 pixels/
inch. The dactyloscopic images shall be compressed using the WSQ algorithm with a ratio of not more than 15:1.
Other compression algorithms or uncompressed images must not be used.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/35

1.4.

Type-9 — Minutiæ record

Type-9 records are used to exchange ridge characteristics or minutiæ data. Their purpose is partly to avoid
unnecessary duplication of AFIS encoding processes and partly to allow the transmission of AFIS codes which
contain less data than the corresponding images.

1.5.

Type-13 — Variable-Resolution Latent Image Record

This record shall be used to exchange variable-resolution latent fingerprint and latent palmprint images together
with textural alphanumerical information. The scanning resolution of the images shall be 500 pixels/inch with
256 grey-levels. If the quality of the latent image is sufficient it shall be compressed using WSQ-algorithm. If
necessary the resolution of the images may be expanded to more than 500 pixels/inch and more than 256 grey-
levels on bilateral agreement. In this case, it is strongly recommended to use JPEG 2000 (see Appendix 7).

1.6.

Variable-Resolution Palmprint Image Record

Type-15 tagged field image records shall be used to exchange variable-resolution palmprint images together with
textural alphanumerical information. The scanning resolution of the images shall be 500 pixels/inch with 256
grey-levels. To minimise the amount of data all palmprint images shall be compressed using WSQ-algorithm. If
necessary the resolution of the images may be expanded to more than 500 pixels/inch and more than 256 grey-
levels on bilateral agreement. In this case, it is strongly recommended to use JPEG 2000 (see Appendix 7).

2.

Record format

A transaction file shall consist of one or more logical records. For each logical record contained in the file, several
information fields appropriate to that record type shall be present. Each information field may contain one or
more basic single-valued information items. Taken together these items are used to convey different aspects of the
data contained in that field. An information field may also consist of one or more information items grouped
together and repeated multiple times within a field. Such a group of information items is known as a subfield. An
information field may therefore consist of one or more subfields of information items.

2.1.

Information separators

In the tagged-field logical records, mechanisms for delimiting information are implemented by use of four ASCII
information separators. The delimited information may be items within a field or subfield, fields within a logical
record, or multiple occurrences of subfields. These information separators are defined in the standard ANSI X3.4.
These characters are used to separate and qualify information in a logical sense. Viewed in a hierarchical
relationship, the File Separator ‘FS’ character is the most inclusive followed by the Group Separator ‘GS’, the
Record Separator ‘RS’, and finally the Unit Separator ‘US’ characters. Table 1 lists these ASCII separators and a
description of their use within this standard.

Information separators should be functionally viewed as an indication of the type data that follows. The ‘US’
character shall separate individual information items within a field or subfield. This is a signal that the next
information item is a piece of data for that field or subfield. Multiple subfields within a field separated by the ‘RS’
character signals the start of the next group of repeated information item(s). The ‘GS’ separator character used
between information fields signals the beginning of a new field preceding the field identifying number that shall
appear. Similarly, the beginning of a new logical record shall be signalled by the appearance of the ‘FS’ character.

The four characters are only meaningful when used as separators of data items in the fields of the ASCII text
records. There is no specific meaning attached to these characters occurring in binary image records and binary
fields — they are just part of the exchanged data.

Normally, there should be no empty fields or information items and therefore only one separator character should
appear between any two data items. The exception to this rule occurs for those instances where the data in fields
or information items in a transaction are unavailable, missing, or optional, and the processing of the transaction is
not dependent upon the presence of that particular data. In those instances, multiple and adjacent separator
characters shall appear together rather than requiring the insertion of dummy data between separator characters.

L 210/36

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

For the definition of a field that consists of three information items, the following applies. If the information for
the second information item is missing, then two adjacent ‘US’ information separator characters would occur
between the first and third information items. If the second and third information items were both missing, then
three separator characters should be used — two ‘US’ characters in addition to the terminating field or subfield
separator character. In general, if one or more mandatory or optional information items are unavailable for a field
or subfield, then the appropriate number of separator character should be inserted.

It is possible to have side-by-side combinations of two or more of the four available separator characters. When
data are missing or unavailable for information items, subfields, or fields, there must be one separator character
less than the number of data items, subfields, or fields required.

Table 1: Separators Used

Code

Type

Description

Hexadecimal
Value

Decimal Value

US

RS

GS

FS

Unit Separator

Separates information items

Record Separator

Separates subfields

Group Separator

Separates fields

File Separator

Separates logical records

1F

1E

1D

1C

31

30

29

28

2.2.

Record layout

For tagged-field logical records, each information field that is used shall be numbered in accordance with this
standard. The format for each field shall consist of the logical record type number followed by a period ‘.’, a field
number followed by a colon ‘:’, followed by the information appropriate to that field. The tagged-field number can
be any one-to-nine digit number occurring between the period ‘.’ and the colon ‘:’. It shall be interpreted as an
unsigned integer field number. This implies that a field number of ‘2.123:’ is equivalent to and shall be interpreted
in the same manner as a field number of ‘2.000000123:’.

For purposes of illustration throughout this document, a three-digit number shall be used for enumerating the
fields contained in each of the tagged-field logical records described herein. Field numbers will have the form of
‘TT.xxx:’ where the ‘TT’ represents the one- or two-character record type followed by a period. The next three
characters comprise the appropriate field number followed by a colon. Descriptive ASCII information or the
image data follows the colon.

Logical Type-1 and Type-2 records contain only ASCII textual data fields. The entire length of the record
(including field numbers, colons, and separator characters) shall be recorded as the first ASCII field within each of
these record types. The ASCII File Separator ‘FS’ control character (signifying the end of the logical record or
transaction) shall follow the last byte of ASCII information and shall be included in the length of the record.

In contrast to the tagged-field concept, the Type-4 record contains only binary data recorded as ordered fixed-
length binary fields. The entire length of the record shall be recorded in the first four-byte binary field of each
record. For this binary record, neither the record number with its period, nor the field identifier number and its
following colon, shall be recorded. Furthermore, as all the field lengths of this record is either fixed or specified,
none of the four separator characters (‘US’, ‘RS’, ‘GS’, or ‘FS’) shall be interpreted as anything other than binary
data. For the binary record, the ‘FS’ character shall not be used as a record separator or transaction terminating
character.

3.

Type-1 Logical Record: the File Header

This record describes the structure of the file, the type of the file, and other important information. The character
set used for Type-1 fields shall contain only the 7-bit ANSI code for information interchange.

3.1.

Fields for Type-1 Logical Record

3.1.1.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 1 : L o g i c a l R e c o r d L e n g t h ( L E N )

This field contains the total count of the number of bytes in the whole Type-1 logical record. The field begins with
‘1.001:’, followed by the total length of the record including every character of every field and the information
separators.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/37

3.1.2.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 2 : Ve r s i o n N u m b e r ( V E R )

To ensure that users know which version of the ANSI/NIST standard is being used, this four byte field specifies the
version number of the standard being implemented by the software or system creating the file. The first two bytes
specify the major version reference number, the second two the minor revision number. For example, the original
1986 Standard would be considered the first version and designated ‘0100’ while the present ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-
2000 standard is ‘0300’.

3.1.3.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 3 : F i l e C o n t e n t

( C N T )

This field lists each of the records in the file by record type and the order in which the records appear in the
logical file. It consists of one or more subfields, each of which in turn contains two information items describing a
single logical record found in the current file. The subfields are entered in the same order in which the records are
recorded and transmitted.

The first information item in the first subfield is ‘1’, to refer to this Type-1 record. It is followed by a second
information item which contains the number of other records contained in the file. This number is also equal to
the count of the remaining subfields of field 1.003.

Each of the remaining subfields is associated with one record within the file, and the sequence of subfields
corresponds to the sequence of records. Each subfield contains two items of information. The first is to identify
the Type of the record. The second is the record's IDC. The ‘US’ character shall be used to separate the two
information items.

3.1.4.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 4 : Ty p e o f T r a n s a c t i o n ( T O T )

This field contains a three letter mnemonic designating the type of the transaction. These codes may be different
from those used by other implementations of the ANSI/NIST standard.

CPS: Criminal Print-to-Print Search. This transaction is a request for a search of a record relating to a criminal
offence against a prints database. The person's prints must be included as WSQ-compressed images in the file.

In case of a No-HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record.

In case of a HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record,

— 1-14 Type-4 Record.

The CPS TOT is summarised in Table A.6.1 (Appendix 6).

PMS: Print-to-Latent Search. This transaction is used when a set of prints shall to be searched against an
Unidentified Latent database. The response will contain the Hit/No-Hit decision of the destination AFIS search. If
multiple unidentified latents exist, multiple SRE transactions will be returned, with one latent per transaction. The
person's prints must be included as WSQ-compressed images in the file.

In case of a No-HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record.

In case of a HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record,

— 1 Type-13 Record.

L 210/38

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

The PMS TOT is summarised in Table A.6.1 (Appendix 6).

MPS: Latent-to-Print Search. This transaction is used when a latent is to be searched against a Prints database. The
latent minutiæ information and the image (WSQ-compressed) must be included in the file.

In case of a No-HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record.

In case of a HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record,

— 1 Type-4 or Type-15 Record.

The MPS TOT is summarised in Table A.6.4 (Appendix 6).

MMS: Latent-to-Latent Search. In this transaction the file contains a latent which is to be searched against an
Unidentified Latent database in order to establish links between various scenes of crime. The latent minutiæ
information and the image (WSQ-compressed) must be included in the file.

In case of a No-HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record.

In case of a HIT, the following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record,

— 1 Type-13 Record.

The MMS TOT is summarised in Table A.6.4 (Appendix 6).

SRE: This transaction is returned by the destination agency in response to dactyloscopic submissions. The
response will contain the Hit/No-Hit decision of the destination AFIS search. If multiple candidates exist, multiple
SRE transactions will be returned, with one candidate per transaction.

The SRE TOT is summarised in Table A.6.2 (Appendix 6).

ERR: This transaction is returned by the destination AFIS to indicate a transaction error. It includes a message field
(ERM) indicating the error detected. The following logical records will be returned:

— 1 Type-1 Record,

— 1 Type-2 Record.

The ERR TOT is summarised in Table A.6.3 (Appendix 6).

Table 2: Permissible Codes in Transactions

Transaction Type

CPS

SRE

MPS

1

M

M

M

2

M

M

M

4

M

C

—

Logical Record Type

9

—

—
(C in case of latent hits)

M (1*)

13

—

C

M

15

—

C

—

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/39

1

M

M

M

2

M

M

M

4

—

M*

—

Logical Record Type

9

M (1*)

—

—

13

M

—

—

15

—

M*

—

Transaction Type

MMS

PMS

ERR

Key:

= Mandatory,
= Only one of both record-types may be included,
= Optional,
= Conditional on whether data is available,

M
M*
O
C
— = Not allowed,
1*

= Conditional depending on legacy systems.

3.1.5.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 5 : D a t e o f T r a n s a c t i o n ( D A T )

This field indicates the date on which the transaction was initiated and must conform to the ISO standard
notation of: YYYYMMDD

where YYYY is the year, MM is the month and DD is the day of the month. Leading zeros are used for single figure
numbers. For example, ‘19931004’ represents 4 October 1993.

3.1.6.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 6 : P r i o r i t y ( P R Y )

This optional field defines the priority, on a level of 1 to 9, of the request. ‘1’ is the highest priority and ‘9’ the
lowest. Priority ‘1’ transactions shall be processed immediately.

3.1.7.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 7 : D e s t i n a t i o n A g e n c y I d e n t i f i e r ( D A I )

This field specifies the destination agency for the transaction.

It consists of two information items in the following format: CC/agency.

The first information item contains the Country Code, defined in ISO 3166, two alpha-numeric characters long.
The second item, agency, is a free text identification of the agency, up to a maximum of 32 alpha-numeric
characters.

3.1.8.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 8 : O r i g i n a t i n g A g e n c y I d e n t i f i e r ( O R I )

This field specifies the file originator and has the same format as the DAI (Field 1.007).

3.1.9.

F i e l d 1 . 0 0 9 : T r a n s a c t i o n C o n t r o l N u m b e r ( T C N )

This is a control number for reference purposes. It should be generated by the computer and have the following
format: YYSSSSSSSSA

where YY is the year of the transaction, SSSSSSSS is an eight-digit serial number, and A is a check character
generated by following the procedure given in Appendix 2.

Where a TCN is not available, the field, YYSSSSSSSS, is filled with zeros and the check character generated as
above.

3.1.10.

F i e l d 1 . 0 1 0 : T r a n s a c t i o n C o n t r o l R e s p o n s e ( T C R )

Where a request was sent out, to which this is the response, this optional field will contain the transaction control
number of the request message. It therefore has the same format as TCN (Field 1.009).

3.1.11.

F i e l d 1 . 0 1 1 : N a t i v e S c a n n i n g R e s o l u t i o n ( N S R )

This field specifies the normal scanning resolution of the system supported by the originator of the transaction.
The resolution is specified as two numeric digits followed by the decimal point and then two more digits.

L 210/40

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

transactions pursuant

For all
19,68 pixels/mm.

to Decision 2008/615/JHA the sampling rate shall be 500 pixels/inch or

3.1.12.

F i e l d 1 . 0 1 2 : N o m i n a l T r a n s m i t t i n g R e s o l u t i o n ( N T R )

This five-byte field specifies the nominal transmitting resolution for the images being transmitted. The resolution
is expressed in pixels/mm in the same format as NSR (Field 1.011).

3.1.13.

F i e l d 1 . 0 1 3 : D o m a i n n a m e ( D O M )

This mandatory field identifies the domain name for the user-defined Type-2 logical record implementation. It
consists of two information items and shall be ‘INT-I{US}4.22{GS}’.

3.1.14.

F i e l d 1 . 0 1 4 : G r e e n w i c h m e a n t i m e ( G M T )

This mandatory field provides a mechanism for expressing the date and time in terms of universal Greenwich
Mean Time (GMT) units. If used, the GMT field contains the universal date that will be in addition to the local date
contained in Field 1.005 (DAT). Use of the GMT field eliminates local time inconsistencies encountered when a
transaction and its response are transmitted between two places separated by several time zones. The GMT
provides a universal date and 24-hour clock time independent of
is represented as
‘CCYYMMDDHHMMSSZ’, a 15-character string that is the concatenation of the date with the GMT and
concludes with a ‘Z’. The ‘CCYY’ characters shall represent the year of the transaction, the ‘MM’ characters shall be
the tens and units values of the month, and the ‘DD’ characters shall be the tens and units values of the day of the
month, the ‘HH’ characters represent the hour, the ‘MM’ the minute, and the ‘SS’ represents the second. The
complete date shall not exceed the current date.

time zones.

It

4.

Type-2 Logical Record: Descriptive Text

The structure of most of this record is not defined by the original ANSI/NIST standard. The record contains
information of specific interest to the agencies sending or receiving the file. To ensure that communicating
dactyloscopic systems are compatible, it is required that only the fields listed below are contained within the
record. This document specifies which fields are mandatory and which optional, and also defines the structure of
the individual fields.

4.1.

Fields for Type-2 Logical Record

4.1.1.

F i e l d 2 . 0 0 1 : L o g i c a l R e c o r d L e n g t h ( L E N )

This mandatory field contains the length of this Type-2 record, and specifies the total number of bytes including
every character of every field contained in the record and the information separators.

4.1.2.

F i e l d 2 . 0 0 2 :

I m a g e D e s i g n a t i o n C h a r a c t e r ( I D C )

The IDC contained in this mandatory field is an ASCII representation of the IDC as defined in the File Content
field (CNT) of the Type-1 record (Field 1.003).

4.1.3.

F i e l d 2 . 0 0 3 : S y s t e m I n f o r m a t i o n ( S Y S )

This field is mandatory and contains four bytes which indicate which version of the INT-I this particular Type-2
record complies with.

The first two bytes specify the major version number, the second two the minor revision number. For example,
this implementation is based on INT-I version 4 revision 22 and would be represented as ‘0422’.

4.1.4.

F i e l d 2 . 0 0 7 : C a s e N u m b e r ( C N O )

This is a number assigned by the local dactyloscopic bureau to a collection of latents found at a scene-of-crime.
The following format is adopted: CC/number

where CC is the Interpol Country Code, two alpha-numeric characters in length, and the number complies with
the appropriate local guidelines and may be up to 32 alpha-numeric characters long.

This field allows the system to identify latents associated with a particular crime.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/41

4.1.5.

F i e l d 2 . 0 0 8 : S e q u e n c e N u m b e r ( S Q N )

This specifies each sequence of latents within a case. It can be up to four numeric characters long. A sequence is a
latent or series of latents which are grouped together for the purposes of filing and/or searching. This definition
implies that even single latents will still have to be assigned a sequence number.

This field together with MID (Field 2.009) may be included to identify a particular latent within a sequence.

4.1.6.

F i e l d 2 . 0 0 9 : L a t e n t

I d e n t i f i e r ( M I D )

This specifies the individual latent within a sequence. The value is a single letter or two letters, with ‘A’ assigned to
the first latent, ‘B’ to the second, and so on up to a limit of ‘ZZ’. This field is used analogue to the latent sequence
number discussed in the description for SQN (Field 2.008).

4.1.7.

F i e l d 2 . 0 1 0 : C r i m i n a l R e f e r e n c e N u m b e r ( C R N )

This is a unique reference number assigned by a national agency to an individual who is charged for the first time
with committing an offence. Within one country no individual ever has more than one CRN, or shares it with any
other individual. However, the same individual may have Criminal Reference Numbers in several countries, which
will be distinguishable by means of the country code.

The following format is adopted for CRN field: CC/number

where CC is the Country Code, defined in ISO 3166, two alpha-numeric characters in length, and the number
complies with the appropriate national guidelines of the issuing agency, and may be up to 32 alpha-numeric
characters long.

For transactions pursuant to Decision 2008/615/JHA this field will be used for the national criminal reference
number of the originating agency which is linked to the images in Type-4 or Type-15 Records.

4.1.8.

F i e l d 2 . 0 1 2 : M i s c e l l a n e o u s I d e n t i f i c a t i o n N u m b e r ( M N 1 )

This fields contains the CRN (Field 2.010) transmitted by a CPS or PMS transaction without the leading country
code.

4.1.9.

F i e l d 2 . 0 1 3 : M i s c e l l a n e o u s I d e n t i f i c a t i o n N u m b e r ( M N 2 )

This fields contains the CNO (Field 2.007) transmitted by an MPS or MMS transaction without the leading
country code.

4.1.10.

F i e l d 2 . 0 1 4 : M i s c e l l a n e o u s I d e n t i f i c a t i o n N u m b e r ( M N 3 )

This fields contains the SQN (Field 2.008) transmitted by an MPS or MMS transaction.

4.1.11.

F i e l d 2 . 0 1 5 : M i s c e l l a n e o u s I d e n t i f i c a t i o n N u m b e r ( M N 4 )

This fields contains the MID (Field 2.009) transmitted by an MPS or MMS transaction.

4.1.12.

F i e l d 2 . 0 6 3 : A d d i t i o n a l

I n f o r m a t i o n ( I N F )

In case of an SRE transaction to a PMS request this field gives information about the finger which caused the
possible HIT. The format of the field is:

NN where NN is the finger position code defined in table 5, two digits in length.

In all other cases the field is optional. It consists of up to 32 alpha-numeric characters and may give additional
information about the request.

4.1.13.

F i e l d 2 . 0 6 4 : R e s p o n d e n t s L i s t

( R L S )

This field contains at least two subfields. The first subfield describes the type of search that has been carried out,
using the three-letter mnemonics which specify the transaction type in TOT (Field 1.004). The second subfield
contains a single character. An ‘I’ shall be used to indicate that a HIT has been found and an ‘N’ shall be used to
indicate that no matching cases have been found (NOHIT). The third subfield contains the sequence identifier for
the candidate result and the total number of candidates separated by a slash. Multiple messages will be returned if
multiple candidates exist.

L 210/42

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

In case of a possible HIT the fourth subfield shall contain the score up to six digits long. If the HIT has been
verified the value of this subfield is defined as ‘999999’.

Example: ‘CPS{RS}I{RS}001/001{RS}999999{GS}’

If the remote AFIS does not assign scores, then a score of zero should be used at the appropriate point.

4.1.14.

F i e l d 2 . 0 7 4 : S t a t u s / E r r o r M e s s a g e F i e l d ( E R M )

This field contains error messages resulting from transactions, which will be sent back to the requester as part of
an Error Transaction.

Numeric code
(1-3)

Table 3: Error messages

Meaning (5-128)

003

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

115

116

117

201

501

502

503

999

ERROR: UNAUTHORISED ACCESS

Mandatory field missing

Invalid record type

Undefined field

Exceed the maximum occurrence

Invalid number of subfields

Field length too short

Field length too long

Field is not a number as expected

Field number value too small

Field number value too big

Invalid character

Invalid date

Invalid item value

Invalid type of transaction

Invalid record data

ERROR: INVALID TCN

ERROR: INSUFFICIENT FINGERPRINT QUALITY

ERROR: MISSING FINGERPRINTS

ERROR: FINGERPRINT SEQUENCE CHECK FAILED

ERROR: ANY OTHER ERROR. FOR FURTHER DETAILS CALL DESTINATION AGENCY.

Error messages in the range between 100 and 199:

These error messages are related to the validation of the ANSI/NIST records and defined as:

<error_code 1>: IDC <idc_number 1> FIELD <field_id 1> <dynamic text 1> LF

<error_code 2>: IDC <idc_number 2> FIELD <field_id 2> <dynamic text 2>…

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/43

where

— error_code is a code uniquely related to a specific reason (see table 3),

— field_id is the ANSI/NIST field number of the incorrect field (e.g. 1.001, 2.001, …)

in the format

<record_type>.<field_id>.<sub_field_id>,

— dynamic text is a more detailed dynamic description of the error,

— LF is a Line Feed separating errors if more then one error is encountered,

— for type-1 record the ICD is defined as ‘-1’.

Example:

201: IDC - 1 FIELD 1.009 WRONG CONTROL CHARACTER {LF} 115: IDC 0 FIELD 2.003 INVALID SYSTEM
INFORMATION

This field is mandatory for error transactions.

4.1.15.

F i e l d 2 . 3 2 0 : E x p e c t e d N u m b e r o f C a n d i d a t e s ( E N C )

This field contains the maximum number of candidates for verification expected by the requesting agency. The
value of ENC must not exceed the values defined in table 11.

5.

Type-4 Logical Record: High Resolution GreyScale Image

It should be noted that Type-4 records are binary rather than ASCII in nature. Therefore each field is assigned a
specific position within the record, which implies that all fields are mandatory.

The standard allows both image size and resolution to be specified within the record. It requires Type-4 Logical
Records to contain dactyloscopic image data that are being transmitted at a nominal pixel density of 500 to 520
pixels per inch. The preferred rate for new designs is at a pixel density of 500 pixels per inch or 19,68 pixels per
mm. 500 pixels per inch is the density specified by the INT-I, except that similar systems may communicate with
each other at a non-preferred rate, within the limits of 500 to 520 pixels per inch.

5.1.

Fields for Type-4 Logical Record

5.1.1.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 1 : L o g i c a l R e c o r d L e n g t h ( L E N )

This four-byte field contains the length of this Type-4 record, and specifies the total number of bytes including
every byte of every field contained in the record.

5.1.2.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 2 :

I m a g e D e s i g n a t i o n C h a r a c t e r ( I D C )

This is the one-byte binary representation of the IDC number given in the header file.

5.1.3.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 3 :

I m p r e s s i o n Ty p e ( I M P )

The impression type is a single-byte field occupying the sixth byte of the record.

Table 4: Finger Impression Type

Description

Live-scan of plain fingerprint

Live-scan of rolled fingerprint

Non-live scan impression of plain fingerprint captured from paper

Non-live scan impression of rolled fingerprint captured from paper

Latent impression captured directly

Latent tracing

Code

0

1

2

3

4

5

L 210/44

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Description

Code

6

7

8

9

Latent photo

Latent lift

Swipe

Unknown

5.1.4.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 4 : F i n g e r P o s i t i o n ( F G P )

This fixed-length field of 6 bytes occupies the seventh through twelfth byte positions of a Type-4 record. It
contains possible finger positions beginning in the left most byte (byte 7 of the record). The known or most
probable finger position is taken from table 5. Up to five additional fingers may be referenced by entering the
alternate finger positions in the remaining five bytes using the same format. If fewer than five finger position
references are to be used the unused bytes are filled with binary 255. To reference all finger positions code 0, for
unknown, is used.

Table 5: Finger position code and maximum size

Finger position

Finger code

Width
(mm)

Length
(mm)

Unknown

Right thumb

Right index finger

Right middle finger

Right ring finger

Right little finger

Left thumb

Left index finger

Left middle finger

Left ring finger

Left little finger

Plain right thumb

Plain left thumb

Plain right four fingers

Plain left four fingers

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

40,0

45,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

33,0

45,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

33,0

30,0

30,0

70,0

70,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

40,0

55,0

55,0

65,0

65,0

For scene of crime latents only the codes 0 to 10 should be used.

5.1.5.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 5 :

I m a g e S c a n n i n g R e s o l u t i o n ( I S R )

This one-byte field occupies the 13th byte of a Type-4 record. If it contains ‘0’ then the image has been sampled at
the preferred scanning rate of 19,68 pixels/mm (500 pixels per inch). If it contains ‘1’ then the image has been
sampled at an alternative scanning rate as specified in the Type-1 record.

5.1.6.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 6 : H o r i z o n t a l L i n e L e n g t h ( H L L )

This field is positioned at bytes 14 and 15 within the Type-4 record. It specifies the number of pixels contained in
each scan line. The first byte will be the most significant.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/45

5.1.7.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 7 : Ve r t i c a l L i n e L e n g t h ( V L L )

This field records in bytes 16 and 17 the number of scan lines present in the image. The first byte is the most
significant.

5.1.8.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 8 : G r e y s c a l e C o m p r e s s i o n A l g o r i t h m ( G C A )

This one-byte field specifies the greyscale compression algorithm used to encode the image data. For this
implementation, a binary code 1 indicates that WSQ compression (Appendix 7) has been used.

5.1.9.

F i e l d 4 . 0 0 9 : T h e I m a g e

This field contains a byte stream representing the image. Its structure will obviously depend on the compression
algorithm used.

6.

Type-9 Logical Record: Minutiæ Record

Type-9 records shall contain ASCII text describing minutiæ and related information encoded from a latent. For
latent search transaction, there is no limit for these Type-9 records in a file, each of which shall be for a different
view or latent.

6.1.

Minutiæ extraction

6.1.1.

M i n u t i a t y p e i d e n t i f i c a t i o n

This standard defines three identifier numbers that are used to describe the minutia type. These are listed in ta-
ble 6. A ridge ending shall be designated Type 1. A bifurcation shall be designated Type 2. If a minutia cannot be
clearly categorised as one of the above two types, it shall be designated as ‘other’, Type 0.

Table 6: Minutia types

Description

Type

0

1

2

Other

Ridge ending

Bifurcation

6.1.2.

M i n u t i a p l a c e m e n t a n d t y p e

For templates to be compliant with Section 5 of the ANSI INCITS 378-2004 standard, the following method,
which enhances the current INCITS 378-2004 standard, shall be used for determining placement (location and
angular direction) of individual minutiae.

The position or location of a minutia representing a ridge ending shall be the point of forking of the medial
skeleton of the valley area immediately in front of the ridge ending. If the three legs of the valley area were
thinned down to a single-pixel-wide skeleton, the point of the intersection is the location of the minutia. Similarly,
the location of the minutia for a bifurcation shall be the point of forking of the medial skeleton of the ridge. If the
three legs of the ridge were each thinned down to a single-pixel-wide skeleton, the point where the three legs
intersect is the location of the minutia.

After all ridge endings have been converted to bifurcations, all of the minutiae of the dactyloscopic image are
represented as bifurcations. The X and Y pixel coordinates of the intersection of the three legs of each minutia can
be directly formatted. Determination of the minutia direction can be extracted from each skeleton bifurcation. The
three legs of every skeleton bifurcation must be examined and the endpoint of each leg determined. Fig-
ure 6.1.2 illustrates the three methods used for determining the end of a leg that is based on a scanning resolution
of 500 ppi.

The ending is established according to the event that occurs first. The pixel count is based on a scan resolution of
500 ppi. Different scan resolutions would imply different pixel counts.

— a distance of 0,064" (the 32nd pixel),

— the end of skeleton leg that occurs between a distance of 0,02" and 0,064" (the 10th through the 32nd

pixels); shorter legs are not used,

— a second bifurcation is encountered within a distance of 0,064" (before the 32nd pixel).

L 210/46

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Figure 6.1.2

The angle of the minutiae is determined by constructing three virtual rays originating at the bifurcation point and
extending to the end of each leg. The smallest of the three angles formed by the rays is bisected to indicate the
minutiae direction.

6.1.3.

C o o r d i n a t e s y s t e m

The coordinate system used to express the minutiae of a fingerprint shall be a Cartesian coordinate system.
Minutiae locations shall be represented by their x and y coordinates. The origin of the coordinate system shall be
the upper left corner of the original image with x increasing to the right and y increasing downward. Both x and y
coordinates of a minutiae shall be represented in pixel units from the origin. It should be noted that the location
of the origin and units of measure is not in agreement with the convention used in the definitions of the Type 9 in
the ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000.

6.1.4.

M i n u t i æ d i r e c t i o n

Angles are expressed in standard mathematical format, with zero degrees to the right and angles increasing in the
counter clockwise direction. Recorded angles are in the direction pointing back along the ridge for a ridge ending
and toward the centre of the valley for a bifurcation. This convention is 180 degrees opposite of the angle
convention described in the definitions of the Type 9 in the ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000.

6.2.

Fields for Type-9 Logical record INCITS-378 Format

All fields of the Type-9 records shall be recorded as ASCII text. No binary fields are permissible in this tagged-field
record.

6.2.1.

F i e l d 9 . 0 0 1 : L o g i c a l r e c o r d l e n g t h ( L E N )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the length of the logical record specifying the total number of bytes,
including every character of every field contained in the record.

6.2.2.

F i e l d 9 . 0 0 2 :

I m a g e d e s i g n a t i o n c h a r a c t e r ( I D C )

This mandatory two-byte field shall be used for the identification and location of the minutiæ data. The IDC
contained in this field shall match the IDC found in the file content field of the Type-1 record.

6.2.3.

F i e l d 9 . 0 0 3 :

I m p r e s s i o n t y p e ( I M P )

This mandatory one-byte field shall describe the manner by which the dactyloscopic image information was
obtained. The ASCII value of the proper code as selected from table 4 shall be entered in this field to signify the
impression type.

6.2.4.

F i e l d 9 . 0 0 4 : M i n u t i æ f o r m a t

( F M T )

This field shall contain a ‘U’ to indicate that the minutiae are formatted in M1-378 terms. Even though
information may be encoded in accordance with the M1-378 standard, all data fields of the Type-9 record must
remain as ASCII text fields.

6.2.5.

F i e l d 9 . 1 2 6 : C B E F F i n f o r m a t i o n

This field shall contain three information items. The first information item shall contain the value ‘27’ (0x1B). This
is the identification of the CBEFF Format Owner assigned by the International Biometric Industry Association
(IBIA) to INCITS Technical Committee M1. The <US> character shall delimit this item from the CBEFF Format
Type that is assigned a value of ‘513’ (0x0201) to indicate that this record contains only location and angular

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/47

direction data without any Extended Data Block information. The <US> character shall delimit this item from the
CBEFF Product Identifier (PID) that identifies the ‘owner’ of the encoding equipment. The vendor establishes this
value. It can be obtained from the IBIA website (www.ibia.org) if it is posted.

6.2.6.

F i e l d 9 . 1 2 7 : C a p t u r e e q u i p m e n t

i d e n t i f i c a t i o n

This field shall contain two information items separated by the <US> character. The first shall contain ‘APPF’ if the
equipment used originally to acquire the image was certified to comply with Appendix F (IAFIS Image Quality
Specification, 29 January 1999) of CJIS-RS-0010, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Electronic Fingerprint
Transmission Specification. If the equipment did not comply it will contain the value of ‘NONE’. The second
information item shall contain the Capture Equipment ID which is a vendor-assigned product number of the
capture equipment. A value of ‘0’ indicates that the capture equipment ID is unreported.

6.2.7.

F i e l d 9 . 1 2 8 : H o r i z o n t a l

l i n e l e n g t h ( H L L )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of pixels contained on a single horizontal line of the
transmitted image. The maximum horizontal size is limited to 65 534 pixels.

6.2.8.

F i e l d 9 . 1 2 9 : Ve r t i c a l

l i n e l e n g t h ( V L L )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of horizontal lines contained in the transmitted image. The
maximum vertical size is limited to 65 534 pixels.

6.2.9.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 0 : S c a l e u n i t s ( S L C )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the units used to describe the image sampling frequency (pixel density). A
‘1’ in this field indicates pixels per inch, or a ‘2’ indicates pixels per centimetre. A ‘0’ in this field indicates no scale
is given. For this case, the quotient of HPS/VPS gives the pixel aspect ratio.

6.2.10.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 1 : H o r i z o n t a l p i x e l s c a l e ( H P S )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the integer pixel density used in the horizontal direction providing the
SLC contains a ‘1’ or a ‘2’. Otherwise, it indicates the horizontal component of the pixel aspect ratio.

6.2.11.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 2 : Ve r t i c a l p i x e l s c a l e ( V P S )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the integer pixel density used in the vertical direction providing the SLC
contains a ‘1’ or a ‘2’. Otherwise, it indicates the vertical component of the pixel aspect ratio.

6.2.12.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 3 : F i n g e r v i e w

This mandatory field contains the view number of the finger associated with this record's data. The view number
begins with ‘0’ and increments by one to ‘15’.

6.2.13.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 4 : F i n g e r p o s i t i o n ( F G P )

This field shall contain the code designating the finger position that produced the information in this Type-9
record. A code between 1 and 10 taken from table 5 or the appropriate palm code from table 10 shall be used to
indicate the finger or palm position.

6.2.14.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 5 : F i n g e r q u a l i t y

The field shall contain the quality of the overall finger minutiæ data and shall be between 0 and 100. This number
is an overall expression of the quality of the finger record, and represents quality of the original image, of the
minutia extraction and any additional operations that may affect the minutiæ record.

6.2.15.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 6 : n u m b e r o f m i n u t i æ

The mandatory field shall contain a count of the number of minutiæ recorded in this logical record.

L 210/48

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

6.2.16.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 7 : F i n g e r m i n u t i æ d a t a

This mandatory field has six information items separated by the <US> character. It consists of several subfields,
each containing the details of single minutiae. The total number of minutiae subfields must agree with the count
found in field 136. The first information item is the minutiae index number, which shall be initialised to ‘1’ and
incremented by ‘1’ for each additional minutia in the fingerprint. The second and third information items are the
‘x’ coordinate and ‘y’ coordinates of the minutiae in pixel units. The fourth information item is the minutiae angle
recorded in units of two degrees. This value shall be nonnegative between 0 and 179. The fifth information item
is the minutiae type. A value of ‘0’ is used to represent minutiae of type ‘OTHER’, a value of ‘1’ for a ridge ending
and a value of ‘2’ for a ridge bifurcation. The sixth information item represents the quality of each minutiae. This
value shall range from 1 as a minimum to 100 as a maximum. A value of ‘0’ indicates that no quality value is
available. Each subfield shall be separated from the next with the use of the <RS> separator character.

6.2.17.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 8 : R i d g e c o u n t

i n f o r m a t i o n

This field consists of a series of subfields each containing three information items. The first information item of
the first subfield shall indicate the ridge count extraction method. A ‘0’ indicates that no assumption shall be made
about the method used to extract ridge counts, nor their order in the record. A ‘1’ indicates that for each centre
minutiae, ridge count data was extracted to the nearest neighbouring minutiae in four quadrants, and ridge counts
for each centre minutia are listed together. A ‘2’ indicates that for each centre minutiae, ridge count data was
extracted to the nearest neighbouring minutiae in eight octants, and ridge counts for each centre minutia are listed
together. The remaining two information items of the first subfield shall both contain ‘0’. Information items shall
be separated by the <US> separator character. Subsequent subfields will contain the centre minutiae index number
as the first information item, the neighbouring minutiae index number as the second information item, and the
number of ridges crossed as the third information item. Subfields shall be separated by the <RS> separator
character.

6.2.18.

F i e l d 9 . 1 3 9 : C o r e i n f o r m a t i o n

This field will consist of one subfield for each core present in the original image. Each subfield consists of three
information items. The first two items contain the ‘x’ and ‘y’ coordinate positions in pixel units. The third
information item contains the angle of the core recorded in units of 2 degrees. The value shall be a nonnegative
value between 0 and 179. Multiple cores will be separated by the <RS> separator character.

6.2.19.

F i e l d 9 . 1 4 0 : D e l t a i n f o r m a t i o n

This field will consist of one subfield for each delta present in the original image. Each subfield consists of three
information items. The first two items contain the ‘x’ and ‘y’ coordinate positions in pixel units. The third
information item contains the angle of the delta recorded in units of 2 degrees. The value shall be a nonnegative
value between 0 and 179. Multiple cores will be separated by the <RS> separator character.

7.

Type-13 variable-resolution latent image record

The Type-13 tagged-field logical record shall contain image data acquired from latent images. These images are
intended to be transmitted to agencies that will automatically extract or provide human intervention and
processing to extract the desired feature information from the images.

Information regarding the scanning resolution used, the image size, and other parameters required to process the
image, are recorded as tagged-fields within the record.

Table 7: Type-13 variable-resolution latent record layout

Ident

Cond.
code

Field
Number

Field name

LEN

IDC

IMP

SRC

LCD

M

M

M

M

M

13.001

LOGICAL RECORD
LENGTH

13.002

IMAGE DESIGNATION
CHARACTER

13.003

IMPRESSION TYPE

13.004

SOURCE AGENCY/ORI

13.005

LATENT CAPTURE DATE

Char
type

N

N

A

AN

N

Field size per
occurrence

Occur count

min.

max.

min

max

Max byte
count

4

2

2

6

9

8

5

2

35

9

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

15

12

9

42

16

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/49

Ident

Cond.
code

Field
Number

Field name

Char
type

Field size per
occurrence

Occur count

min.

max.

min

max

Max byte
count

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

HLL

VLL

SLC

HPS

VPS

CGA

BPX

FGP

RSV

13.006

HORIZONTAL LINE
LENGTH

13.007

VERTICAL LINE LENGTH

13.008

SCALE UNITS

13.009

HORIZONTAL PIXEL
SCALE

13.010

VERTICAL PIXEL SCALE

13.011

COMPRESSION ALGO-
RITHM

13.012

BITS PER PIXEL

13.013

FINGER POSITION

13.014
13.019

RESERVED FOR FUTURE
DEFINITION

COM

O

13.020

COMMENT

RSV

UDF

DAT

O

M

13.021
13.199

13.200
13.998

RESERVED FOR FUTURE
DEFINITION

USER-DEFINED FIELDS

13.999

IMAGE DATA

N

N

N

N

N

A

N

N

—

A

—

—

B

4

4

2

2

2

5

2

2

—

2

—

—

2

5

5

2

5

5

7

3

3

—

128

—

—

—

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

—

0

—

—

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

6

—

1

—

—

1

12

12

9

12

12

14

10

25

—

135

—

—

—

Key for character type: N = Numeric; A = Alphabetic; AN = Alphanumeric; B = Binary

7.1.

Fields for the Type-13 logical record

The following paragraphs describe the data contained in each of the fields for the Type-13 logical record.

Within a Type-13 logical record, entries shall be provided in numbered fields. It is required that the first two fields
of the record are ordered, and the field containing the image data shall be the last physical field in the record. For
each field of the Type-13 record, table 7 lists the ‘condition code’ as being mandatory ‘M’ or optional ‘O’, the field
number, the field name, character type, field size, and occurrence limits. Based on a three digit field number, the
maximum byte count size for the field is given in the last column. As more digits are used for the field number,
the maximum byte count will also increase. The two entries in the ‘field size per occurrence’ include all character
separators used in the field. The ‘maximum byte count’ includes the field number, the information, and all the
character separators including the ‘GS’ character.

7.1.1.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 1 : L o g i c a l r e c o r d l e n g t h ( L E N )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the total count of the number of bytes in the Type-13 logical record.
Field 13.001 shall specify the length of the record including every character of every field contained in the record
and the information separators.

7.1.2.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 2 :

I m a g e d e s i g n a t i o n c h a r a c t e r ( I D C )

This mandatory ASCII field shall be used to identify the latent image data contained in the record. This IDC shall
match the IDC found in the file content (CNT) field of the Type-1 record.

7.1.3.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 3 :

I m p r e s s i o n t y p e ( I M P )

This mandatory one- or two-byte ASCII field shall indicate the manner by which the latent image information was
obtained. The appropriate latent code choice selected from table 4 (finger) or table 9 (palm) shall be entered in this
field.

L 210/50

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

7.1.4.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 4 : S o u r c e a g e n c y / O R I

( S R C )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the identification of the administration or organisation that originally
captured the facial image contained in the record. Normally, the Originating Agency Identifier (ORI) of the agency
that captured the image will be contained in this field. It consists of two information items in the following
format: CC/agency.

The first information item contains the Interpol Country Code, two alpha-numeric characters long. The second
item, agency, is a free text identification of the agency, up to a maximum of 32 alpha-numeric characters.

7.1.5.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 5 : L a t e n t c a p t u r e d a t e ( L C D )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the date that the latent image contained in the record was captured. The
date shall appear as eight digits in the format CCYYMMDD. The CCYY characters shall represent the year the
image was captured; the MM characters shall be the tens and unit values of the month; and the DD characters shall
be the tens and unit values of the day in the month. For example, 20000229 represents 29 February 2000. The
complete date must be a legitimate date.

7.1.6.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 6 : H o r i z o n t a l

l i n e l e n g t h ( H L L )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of pixels contained on a single horizontal line of the
transmitted image.

7.1.7.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 7 : Ve r t i c a l

l i n e l e n g t h ( V L L )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of horizontal lines contained in the transmitted image.

7.1.8.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 8 : S c a l e u n i t s ( S L C )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the units used to describe the image sampling frequency (pixel density). A
‘1’ in this field indicates pixels per inch, or a ‘2’ indicates pixels per centimetre. A ‘0’ in this field indicates no scale
is given. For this case, the quotient of HPS/VPS gives the pixel aspect ratio.

7.1.9.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 0 9 : H o r i z o n t a l p i x e l s c a l e ( H P S )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the integer pixel density used in the horizontal direction providing the
SLC contains a ‘1’ or a ‘2’. Otherwise, it indicates the horizontal component of the pixel aspect ratio.

7.1.10.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 1 0 : Ve r t i c a l p i x e l s c a l e ( V P S )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the integer pixel density used in the vertical direction providing the SLC
contains a ‘1’ or a ‘2’. Otherwise, it indicates the vertical component of the pixel aspect ratio.

7.1.11.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 1 1 : C o m p r e s s i o n a l g o r i t h m ( C G A )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the algorithm used to compress greyscale images. See Appendix 7 for the
compression codes.

7.1.12.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 1 2 : B i t s p e r p i x e l

( B P X )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of bits used to represent a pixel. This field shall contain an
entry of ‘8’ for normal greyscale values of ‘0’ to ‘255’. Any entry in this field greater than ‘8’ shall represent a
greyscale pixel with increased precision.

7.1.13.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 1 3 : F i n g e r / p a l m p o s i t i o n ( F G P )

This mandatory tagged-field shall contain one or more the possible finger or palm positions that may match the
latent image. The decimal code number corresponding to the known or most probable finger position shall be
taken from table 5 or the most probable palm position from table 10 and entered as a one- or two-character
ASCII subfield. Additional finger and/or palm positions may be referenced by entering the alternate position codes
as subfields separated by the ‘RS’ separator character. The code ‘0’, for ‘Unknown Finger’, shall be used to reference
every finger position from one through ten. The code ‘20’, for ‘Unknown Palm’, shall be used to reference every
listed palmprint position.

7.1.14.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 1 4 - 0 1 9 : R e s e r v e d f o r f u t u r e d e f i n i t i o n ( R S V )

These fields are reserved for inclusion in future revisions of this standard. None of these fields are to be used at
this revision level. If any of these fields are present, they are to be ignored.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/51

7.1.15.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 2 0 : C o m m e n t

( C O M )

This optional field may be used to insert comments or other ASCII text information with the latent image data.

7.1.16.

F i e l d 1 3 . 0 2 1 - 1 9 9 : R e s e r v e d f o r f u t u r e d e f i n i t i o n ( R S V )

These fields are reserved for inclusion in future revisions of this standard. None of these fields are to be used at
this revision level. If any of these fields are present, they are to be ignored.

7.1.17.

F i e l d s 1 3 . 2 0 0 - 9 9 8 : U s e r - d e f i n e d f i e l d s ( U D F )

These fields are user-definable fields and will be used for future requirements. Their size and content shall be
defined by the user and be in accordance with the receiving agency. If present they shall contain ASCII textual
information.

7.1.18.

F i e l d 1 3 . 9 9 9 :

I m a g e d a t a ( D A T )

This field shall contain all data from a captured latent image. It shall always be assigned field number 999 and
‘13.999:’ is followed by image data in a binary
must be the last physical field in the record. For example,
representation.

Each pixel of uncompressed greyscale data shall normally be quantised to eight bits (256 grey levels) contained in
a single byte. If the entry in BPX Field 13.012 is greater or less than ‘8’, the number of bytes required to contain a
pixel will be different. If compression is used, the pixel data shall be compressed in accordance with the
compression technique specified in the GCA field.

7.2.

End of Type-13 variable-resolution latent image record

For the sake of consistency, immediately following the last byte of data from Field 13.999 an ‘FS’ separator shall
be used to separate it from the next logical record. This separator must be included in the length field of the Type-
13 record.

8.

Type-15 variable-resolution palmprint image record

The Type-15 tagged-field logical record shall contain and be used to exchange palmprint image data together with
fixed and user-defined textual information fields pertinent to the digitised image. Information regarding the
scanning resolution used, the image size and other parameters or comments required to process the image are
recorded as tagged-fields within the record. Palmprint images transmitted to other agencies will be processed by
the recipient agencies to extract the desired feature information required for matching purposes.

The image data shall be acquired directly from a subject using a live-scan device, or from a palmprint card or other
media that contains the subject's palmprints.

Any method used to acquire the palmprint images shall be capable of capturing a set of images for each hand.
This set shall include the writer's palm as a single scanned image, and the entire area of the full palm extending
from the wrist bracelet to the tips of the fingers as one or two scanned images. If two images are used to represent
the full palm, the lower image shall extend from the wrist bracelet to the top of the interdigital area (third finger
joint) and shall include the thenar, and hypothenar areas of the palm. The upper image shall extend from the
bottom of the interdigital area to the upper tips of the fingers. This provides an adequate amount of overlap
between the two images that are both located over the interdigital area of the palm. By matching the ridge
structure and details contained in this common area, an examiner can confidently state that both images came
from the same palm.

As a palmprint transaction may be used for different purposes, it may contain one or more unique image areas
recorded from the palm or hand. A complete palmprint record set for one individual will normally include the
writer's palm and the full palm image(s) from each hand. Since a tagged-field logical image record may contain
only one binary field, a single Type-15 record will be required for each writer's palm and one or two Type-15
records for each full palm. Therefore, four to six Type-15 records will be required to represent the subject's
palmprints in a normal palmprint transaction.

8.1.

Fields for the Type-15 logical record

The following paragraphs describe the data contained in each of the fields for the Type-15 logical record.

L 210/52

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Within a Type-15 logical record, entries shall be provided in numbered fields. It is required that the first two fields
of the record are ordered, and the field containing the image data shall be the last physical field in the record. For
each field of the Type-15 record, table 8 lists the ‘condition code’ as being mandatory ‘M’ or optional ‘O’, the field
number, the field name, character type, field size, and occurrence limits. Based on a three digit field number, the
maximum byte count size for the field is given in the last column. As more digits are used for the field number,
the maximum byte count will also increase. The two entries in the ‘field size per occurrence’ include all character
separators used in the field. The ‘maximum byte count’ includes the field number, the information, and all the
character separators including the ‘GS’ character.

8.1.1.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 1 : L o g i c a l r e c o r d l e n g t h ( L E N )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the total count of the number of bytes in the Type-15 logical record.
Field 15.001 shall specify the length of the record including every character of every field contained in the record
and the information separators.

8.1.2.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 2 :

I m a g e d e s i g n a t i o n c h a r a c t e r ( I D C )

This mandatory ASCII field shall be used to identify the palmprint image contained in the record. This IDC shall
match the IDC found in the file content (CNT) field of the Type-1 record.

8.1.3.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 3 :

I m p r e s s i o n t y p e ( I M P )

This mandatory one-byte ASCII field shall indicate the manner by which the palmprint image information was
obtained. The appropriate code selected from table 9 shall be entered in this field.

8.1.4.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 4 : S o u r c e a g e n c y / O R I

( S R C )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the identification of the administration or organisation that originally
captured the facial image contained in the record. Normally, the Originating Agency Identifier (ORI) of the agency
that captured the image will be contained in this field. It consists of two information items in the following
format: CC/agency.

The first information item contains the Interpol Country Code, two alpha-numeric characters long. The second
item, agency, is a free text identification of the agency, up to a maximum of 32 alpha-numeric characters.

8.1.5.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 5 : P a l m p r i n t c a p t u r e d a t e ( P C D )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the date that the palmprint image was captured. The date shall appear as
eight digits in the format CCYYMMDD. The CCYY characters shall represent the year the image was captured; the
MM characters shall be the tens and unit values of the month; and the DD characters shall be the tens and units
values of the day in the month. For example, the entry 20000229 represents 29 February 2000. The complete
date must be a legitimate date.

8.1.6.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 6 : H o r i z o n t a l

l i n e l e n g t h ( H L L )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of pixels contained on a single horizontal line of the
transmitted image.

8.1.7.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 7 : Ve r t i c a l

l i n e l e n g t h ( V L L )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of horizontal lines contained in the transmitted image.

8.1.8.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 8 : S c a l e u n i t s ( S L C )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the units used to describe the image sampling frequency (pixel density). A
‘1’ in this field indicates pixels per inch, or a ‘2’ indicates pixels per centimetre. A ‘0’ in this field indicates no scale
is given. For this case, the quotient of HPS/VPS gives the pixel aspect ratio.

8.1.9.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 0 9 : H o r i z o n t a l p i x e l s c a l e ( H P S )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the integer pixel density used in the horizontal direction providing the
SLC contains a ‘1’ or a ‘2’. Other-wise, it indicates the horizontal component of the pixel aspect ratio.

8.1.10.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 1 0 : Ve r t i c a l p i x e l s c a l e ( V P S )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the integer pixel density used in the vertical direction providing the SLC
contains a ‘1’ or a ‘2’. Otherwise, it indicates the vertical component of the pixel aspect ratio.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/53

Table 8: Type-15 variable-resolution palmprint record layout

Ident

Cond.
code

Field num-
ber

Field name

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

LEN

IDC

IMP

SRC

PCD

HLL

VLL

SLC

HPS

VPS

CGA

BPX

PLP

RSV

15.001

LOGICAL RECORD
LENGTH

15.002

IMAGE DESIGNATION
CHARACTER

15.003

IMPRESSION TYPE

15.004

SOURCE AGENCY/ORI

AN

15.005

PALMPRINT CAPTURE
DATE

15.006

HORIZONTAL LINE
LENGTH

15.007

VERTICAL LINE LENGTH

15.008

SCALE UNITS

15.009

HORIZONTAL PIXEL
SCALE

15.010

VERTICAL PIXEL SCALE

15.011

COMPRESSION ALGO-
RITHM

15.012

BITS PER PIXEL

15.013

PALMPRINT POSITION

15.014
15.019

RESERVED FOR FUTURE
INCLUSION

COM

O

15.020

COMMENT

RSV

UDF

DAT

O

M

15.021
15.199

15.200
15.998

RESERVED FOR FUTURE
INCLUSION

USER-DEFINED FIELDS

15.999

IMAGE DATA

Char
type

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

AN

N

N

—

AN

—

—

B

Table 9: Palm Impression Type

Description

Live-scan palm

Nonlive-scan palm

Latent palm impression

Latent palm tracing

Latent palm photo

Latent palm lift

Field size per
occurrence

Occur count

min.

max.

min

max

Max byte
count

8

5

2

35

9

5

5

2

5

5

7

3

3

—

128

—

—

—

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

—

0

—

—

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

—

1

—

—

1

15

12

9

42

16

12

12

9

12

12

14

10

10

—

128

—

—

—

4

2

2

6

9

4

4

2

2

2

5

2

2

—

2

—

—

2

Code

10

11

12

13

14

15

8.1.11.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 1 1 : C o m p r e s s i o n a l g o r i t h m ( C G A )

This mandatory ASCII field shall specify the algorithm used to compress greyscale images. An entry of ‘NONE’ in
this field indicates that the data contained in this record are uncompressed. For those images that are to be
compressed, this field shall contain the preferred method for the compression of tenprint fingerprint images. Valid
compression codes are defined in Appendix 7.

L 210/54

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

8.1.12.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 1 2 : B i t s p e r p i x e l

( B P X )

This mandatory ASCII field shall contain the number of bits used to represent a pixel. This field shall contain an
entry of ‘8’ for normal greyscale values of ‘0’ to ‘255’. Any entry in this field greater than or less than ‘8’ shall
represent a greyscale pixel with increased or decreased precision respectively.

Table 10: Palm Codes, Areas and Sizes

Palm Position

Palm code

Image area
(mm2)

Width (mm)

Height (mm)

Unknown Palm

Right Full Palm

Right Writer s Palm

Left Full Palm

Left Writer s Palm

Right Lower Palm

Right Upper Palm

Left Lower Palm

Left Upper Palm

Right Other

Left Other

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

28 387

28 387

5 645

28 387

5 645

19 516

19 516

19 516

19 516

28 387

28 387

139,7

139,7

44,5

139,7

44,5

139,7

139,7

139,7

139,7

139,7

139,7

203,2

203,2

127,0

203,2

127,0

139,7

139,7

139,7

139,7

203,2

203,2

8.1.13.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 1 3 : P a l m p r i n t p o s i t i o n ( P L P )

This mandatory tagged-field shall contain the palmprint position that matches the palmprint image. The decimal
code number corresponding to the known or most probable palmprint position shall be taken from table 10 and
entered as a two-character ASCII subfield. Table 10 also lists the maximum image areas and dimensions for each
of the possible palmprint positions.

8.1.14.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 1 4 - 0 1 9 : R e s e r v e d f o r f u t u r e d e f i n i t i o n ( R S V )

These fields are reserved for inclusion in future revisions of this standard. None of these fields are to be used at
this revision level. If any of these fields are present, they are to be ignored.

8.1.15.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 2 0 : C o m m e n t

( C O M )

This optional field may be used to insert comments or other ASCII text information with the palmprint image
data.

8.1.16.

F i e l d 1 5 . 0 2 1 - 1 9 9 : R e s e r v e d f o r f u t u r e d e f i n i t i o n ( R S V )

These fields are reserved for inclusion in future revisions of this standard. None of these fields are to be used at
this revision level. If any of these fields are present, they are to be ignored.

8.1.17.

F i e l d s 1 5 . 2 0 0 - 9 9 8 : U s e r - d e f i n e d f i e l d s ( U D F )

These fields are user-definable fields and will be used for future requirements. Their size and content shall be
defined by the user and be in accordance with the receiving agency. If present they shall contain ASCII textual
information.

8.1.18.

F i e l d 1 5 . 9 9 9 :

I m a g e d a t a ( D A T )

This field shall contain all of the data from a captured palmprint image. It shall always be assigned field number
999 and must be the last physical field in the record. For example, ‘15.999:’ is followed by image data in a binary
representation. Each pixel of uncompressed greyscale data shall normally be quantised to eight bits (256 grey
levels) contained in a single byte. If the entry in BPX Field 15.012 is greater or less than 8, the number of bytes
required to contain a pixel will be different. If compression is used, the pixel data shall be compressed in
accordance with the compression technique specified in the CGA field.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/55

8.2.

End of Type-15 variable-resolution palmprint image record

For the sake of consistency, immediately following the last byte of data from Field 15.999 an ‘FS’ separator shall
be used to separate it from the next logical record. This separator must be included in the length field of the Type-
15 record.

8.3.

Additional Type-15 variable-resolution palmprint image records

Additional Type-15 records may be included in the file. For each additional palmprint image, a complete Type-15
logical record together with the ‘FS’ separator is required.

Table 11: Maximum numbers of candidates accepted for verification per transmission

TP/TP

LT/TP

LP/PP

TP/UL

LT/UL

PP/ULP

LP/ULP

1

10

5

5

5

5

5

Type of AFIS
Search

Maximum
Number of
Candidates

Search types:

TP/TP: ten-print against ten-print

LT/TP: fingerprint latent against ten-print

LP/PP: palmprint latent against palmprint

TP/UL: ten-print against unsolved fingerprint latent

LT/UL: fingerprint latent against unsolved fingerprint latent

PP/ULP: palmprint against unsolved palmprint latent

LP/ULP: palmprint latent against unsolved palmprint latent

9.

Appendices to Chapter 2 (exchange of dactyloscopic data)

9.1.

Appendix 1 ASCII Separator Codes

ASCII

Position (1)

Description

LF

FS

GS

RS

US

1/10

1/12

1/13

1/14

1/15

Separates error codes in Field 2.074

Separates logical records of a file

Separates fields of a logical record

Separates the subfields of a record field

Separates individual information items of the field or
subfield

(1) This is the position as defined in the ASCII standard.

9.2.

Appendix 2 Calculation of Alpha-Numeric Check Character

For TCN and TCR (Fields 1.09 and 1.10):

The number corresponding to the check character is generated using the following formula:

(YY * 108 + SSSSSSSS) Modulo 23

Where YY and SSSSSSSS are the numerical values of the last two digits of the year and the serial number
respectively.

The check character is then generated from the look-up table given below.

L 210/56

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

For CRO (Field 2.010)

The number corresponding to the check character is generated using the following formula:

(YY * 106 + NNNNNN) Modulo 23

Where YY and NNNNNN are the numerical values of the last two digits of the year and the serial number
respectively.

The check character is then generated from the look-up table given below.

Check Character Look-up Table

1-A

2-B

3-C

4-D

5-E

6-F

7-G

8-H

9-J

10-K

11-L

12-M

13-N

14-P

15-Q

16-R

17-T

18-U

19-V

20-W

21-X

22-Y

0-Z

9.3.

Appendix 3 Character Codes

7-bit ANSI code for information interchange

ASCII Character Set

0

(

2

<

F

P

Z

d

n

x

1

)

3

=

G

Q

[

e

o

y

2

*

4

>

H

R

\

f

p

z

3

!

+

5

?

I

S

]

g

q

{

4

’

,

6

@

J

T

^

h

r

|

5

#

-

7

A

K

U

_

i

s

}

6

$

.

8

B

L

V

`

j

t

~

7

%

/

9

C

M

W

a

k

u

8

&

0

:

D

N

X

b

l

v

9

‘

1

;

E

O

Y

c

m

w

+

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

9.4.

Appendix 4 Transaction Summary

Type 1 Record (mandatory)

Identifier

Field
number

Field name

CPS/PMS

SRE

ERR

LEN

VER

CNT

1.001

Logical Record Length

1.002

Version Number

1.003

File Content

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/57

Identifier

Field
number

Field name

CPS/PMS

SRE

ERR

TOT

DAT

PRY

DAI

ORI

TCN

TCR

NSR

NTR

DOM

GMT

1.004

Type of Transaction

1.005

Date

1.006

Priority

1.007

Destination Agency

1.008

Originating Agency

1.009

Transaction Control Number

1.010

Transaction Control Reference

1.011

Native Scanning Resolution

1.012

Nominal Transmitting Resolution

1.013

Domain name

1.014

Greenwich mean time

Under the Condition Column:

M

M

M

M

M

M

C

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

O = Optional; M = Mandatory; C = Conditional if transaction is a response to the origin agency

Type 2 Record (mandatory)

Identifier

Field
number

Field name

CPS/
PMS

MPS/
MMS

SRE

ERR

LEN

IDC

SYS

CNO

SQN

MID

CRN

MN1

MN2

MN3

MN4

INF

RLS

ERM

ENC

2.001

Logical Record Length

2.002

Image Designation Character

2.003

System Information

2.007

Case Number

2.008

Sequence Number

2.009

Latent Identifier

2.010

Criminal Reference Number

2.012

Miscellaneous Identification Number

2.013

Miscellaneous Identification Number

2.014

Miscellaneous Identification Number

2.015

Miscellaneous Identification Number

2.063

Additional Information

2.064

Respondents List

2.074

Status/Error Message Field

2.320

Expected Number of Candidates

M

M

M

—

—

—

M

—

—

—

—

O

—

—

M

M

M

M

M

C

C

—

—

—

—

—

O

—

—

M

M

M

M

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

C

O

M

—

—

M

M

M

—

—

—

—

C

C

C

C

O

—

M

—

Under the Condition Column:

O = Optional; M = Mandatory; C = Conditional if data is available

*

= if the transmission of the data is in accordance with national law (not covered by the Council Decision

2008/615/JHA)

L 210/58

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

9.5.

Appendix 5 Type-1 Record Definitions

Identifier

Condition

LEN

VER

M

M

Field
number

1.001

Logical Record
Length

1.002

Version Number

Field name

Character
type

Example data

N

N

N

A

N

N

1*

1*

1.001:230{GS}

1.002:0300{GS}

1.003:1{US}15{RS}2{US}00{RS}4
{US}01{RS}4{US}02{RS}4{US}03
{RS}4{US}04{RS}4{US}05{RS}4
{US}06{RS}4{US}07{RS}4{US}08
{RS}4{US}09{RS}4{US}10{RS}4
{US}11{RS}4{US}12{RS}4{US}13
{RS}4{US}14{GS}

1.004:CPS{GS}

1.005:20050101{GS}

1.006:4{GS}

1.007:DE/BKA{GS}

1.008:NL/NAFIS{GS}

AN

1.009:0200000004F{GS}

AN

1.010:0200000004F{GS}

AN

1.011:19.68{GS}

AN

1.012:19,68{GS}

CNT

M

1.003

File Content

1.004

Type of Transaction

1.005

Date

1.006

Priority

1.007

Destination Agency

1.008

Originating Agency

1.009

1.010

1.011

1.012

Transaction Control
Number

Transaction Control
Reference

Native Scanning
Resolution

Nominal Transmit-
ting Resolution

TOT

DAT

PRY

DAI

ORI

TCN

TCR

NSR

NTR

DOM

GMT

M

M

M

M

M

M

C

M

M

M

M

1.013

Domain Name

AN

1.013: INT-I{US}4,22{GS}

1.014

Greenwich Mean
Time

AN

1.014:20050101125959Z

Under the Condition Column: O = Optional, M = Mandatory, C = Conditional

Under the Character Type Column: A = Alpha, N = Numeric, B = Binary

1* allowed characters for agency name are [‘0..9’, ‘A..Z’, ‘a..z’, ‘_’, ‘.’, ‘ ’, ‘-’]

9.6.

Appendix 6 Type-2 Record Definitions

Table A.6.1: CPS- and PMS-Transaction

Field name

Character
type

Example data

Identifier

Condition

LEN

IDC

SYS

CRN

M

M

M

M

Field
number

2.001

Logical Record
Length

2.002

Image Designation
Character

2.003

System Information

2.010

Criminal Reference
Number

N

N

N

2.001:909{GS}

2.002:00{GS}

2.003:0422{GS}

AN

2.010:DE/E999999999{GS}

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/59

Identifier

Condition

INF

ENC

O

M

Identifier

Condition

LEN

IDC

SYS

CRN

MN1

MN2

MN3

MN4

INF

RLS

M

M

M

C

C

C

C

C

O

M

Identifier

Condition

LEN

IDC

SYS

MN1

MN2

MN3

MN4

INF

M

M

M

M

C

C

C

O

Field name

Character
type

Example data

Additional Informa-
tion

2.320

Expected Number of
Candidates

1*

N

2.063:Additional Information 123
{GS}

2.320:1{GS}

Table A.6.2: SRE-Transaction

Field name

Character
type

Example data

Field
number

2.063

Field
number

2.001

Logical Record
Length

2.002

Image Designation
Character

2.003

System Information

2.010

2.012

2.013

2.014

2.015

2.063

Criminal Reference
Number

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Additional Informa-
tion

Field
number

2.001

Logical Record
Length

2.002

Image Designation
Character

2.003

System Information

2.012

2.013

2.014

2.015

2.063

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Miscellaneous Identi-
fication Number

Additional Informa-
tion

N

N

N

2.001:909{GS}

2.002:00{GS}

2.003:0422{GS}

AN

2.010:NL/2222222222{GS}

AN

2.012:E999999999{GS}

AN

2.013:E999999999{GS}

N

A

1*

2.014:0001{GS}

2.015:A{GS}

2.063:Additional Information 123
{GS}

2.064:CPS{RS}I{RS}001/001{RS}
999999{GS}

N

N

N

2.001:909{GS}

2.002:00{GS}

2.003:0422{GS}

AN

2.012:E999999999{GS}

AN

2.013:E999999999{GS}

N

A

1*

2.014:0001{GS}

2.015:A{GS}

2.063:Additional Information 123
{GS}

2.064

Respondents List

AN

Table A.6.3: ERR-Transaction

Field name

Character
type

Example data

L 210/60

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Identifier

Condition

Field
number

Field name

Character
type

Example data

ERM

M

2.074

Status/Error Message
Field

AN

2.074: 201: IDC - 1 FIELD 1.009
WRONG CONTROL CHARACTER
{LF} 115: IDC 0 FIELD 2.003
INVALID SYSTEM INFORMATION
{GS}

Identifier

Condition

LEN

IDC

SYS

CNO

SQN

MID

INF

ENC

M

M

M

M

C

C

O

M

Table A.6.4: MPS- and MMS-Transaction

Field name

Character
type

Example data

Field
number

2.001

2.002

Logical Record
Length

Image Designation
Character

2.003

System Information

N

N

N

2.001:909{GS}

2.002:00{GS}

2.003:0422{GS}

2.007

Case Number

AN

2.007:E999999999{GS}

2.008

Sequence Number

2.009

Latent Identifier

2.063

2.320

Additional Informa-
tion

Expected Number of
Candidates

N

A

1*

N

2.008:0001{GS}

2.009:A{GS}

2.063:Additional Information 123
{GS}

2.320:1{GS}

Under the Condition Column: O = Optional, M = Mandatory, C = Conditional

Under the Character Type Column: A = Alpha, N = Numeric, B = Binary

1* allowed characters are [‘0..9’, ‘A..Z’, ‘a..z’, ‘_’, ‘.’, ‘ ’, ‘-’,‘,’]

9.7.

Appendix 7 Greyscale Compression Codes

Compression Codes

Compression

Value

Remarks

Wavelet Scalar Quantisation Grey-
scale Fingerprint Image Compression
Specification
IAFIS-IC-0010(V3), dated 19 Decem-
ber 1997

JPEG 2000
[ISO 15444/ITU T.800]

WSQ

J2K

Algorithm to be used for the compression of greyscale
images in Type-4, Type-7 and Type-13 to Type-15
records. Shall not be used for resolutions > 500dpi.

To be used for lossy and losslessly compression of
greyscale images in Type-13 to Type-15 records. Strongly
recommended for resolutions > 500 dpi

9.8.

Appendix 8 Mailspecification

To improve the internal workflow the mailsubject of a PRUEM transaction has to be filled with the country code
(CC) of the Member State that send the message and the Type of Transaction (TOT Field 1.004).

Format: CC/type of transaction

Example: ‘DE/CPS’

The mailbody can be empty.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/61

CHAPTER 3: Exchange of vehicle registration data

1.

Common data-set for automated search of vehicle registration data

1.1.

Definitions

The definitions of mandatory data elements and optional data elements set out in Article 16(4) are as follows:

Mandatory (M):

The data element has to be communicated when the information is available in a Member State's national register.
Therefore there is an obligation to exchange the information when available.

Optional (O):

The data element may be communicated when the information is available in a Member State's national register.
Therefore there is no obligation to exchange the information even when the information is available.

An indication (Y) is given for each element in the data set where the element is specifically identified as important
in relation with the Decision 2008/615/JHA.

1.2.

Vehicle/owner/holder search

1.2.1.

T r i g g e r s f o r t h e s e a r c h

There are two different ways to search for the information as defined in the next paragraph:

— by Chassis Number (VIN), Reference Date and Time (optional),

— by License Plate Number, Chassis Number (VIN) (optional), Reference Date and Time (optional).

By means of these search criteria, information related to one and sometimes more vehicles will be returned. If
information for only one vehicle has to be returned, all the items are returned in one response. If more than one
vehicle is found, the requested Member State itself can determine which items will be returned; all items or only
the items to refine the search (e.g. because of privacy reasons or because of performance reasons).

The items necessary to refine the search are pictured in paragraph 1.2.2.1. In paragraph 1.2.2.2 the complete
information set is described.

When the search is done by Chassis Number, Reference Date and Time, the search can be done in one or all of the
participating Member States.

When the search is done by License Number, Reference Data and Time, the search has to be done in one specific
Member State.

Normally the actual Date and Time is used to make a search, but it is possible to conduct a search with a
Reference Date and Time in the past. When a search is made with a Reference Date and Time in the past and
historical information is not available in the register of the specific Member State because no such information is
registered at all, the actual
information can be returned with an indication that the information is actual
information.

1.2.2.

D a t a s e t

1.2.2.1.

Items to be returned necessary for the refinement of the search

Item

M/O (1)

Remarks

Prüm Y/N (2)

Data relating to vehicles

Licence number

Chassis number/VIN

Country of registration

Make

Commercial type of the vehicle

M

M

M

M

M

(D.1 (3)) e.g. Ford, Opel, Renault, etc.

(D.3) e.g. Focus, Astra, Megane

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

L 210/62

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Item

M/O (1)

Remarks

Prüm Y/N (2)

EU Category Code

M

(J) mopeds, motorbikes, cars, etc.

Y

(1) M = mandatory when available in national register, O = optional.
(2) All the attributes specifically allocated by the Member States are indicated with Y.
(3) Harmonised document abbreviation, see Council Directive 1999/37/EC of 29 April 1999.

1.2.2.2. Complete data set

Item

M/O (1)

Remarks

Prüm Y/N

Data relating to holders of the
vehicle

(C.1 (2)) The data refer to the holder of the
specific registration certificate.

Registration holders' (company)
name

First name

Address

Gender

Date of birth

Legal entity

Place of Birth

ID Number

Type of ID Number

Start date holdership

End date holdership

Type of holder

Data relating to owners of the
vehicle

Owners' (company) name

First name

M

M

M

M

M

M

O

O

O

O

O

O

M

M

(C.1.1.)
separate fields will be used for surname,
infixes, titles, etc., and the name in printable
format will be communicated

(C.1.2)
separate fields for first name(s) and initials
will be used, and the name in printable
format will be communicated

(C.1.3)
separate fields will be used for Street, House
number and Annex, Zip code, Place of
residence, Country of residence, etc., and the
Address in printable format will be commu-
nicated

Male, female

individual, association, company, firm, etc.

An identifier that uniquely identifies the
person or the company.

The type of ID Number (e.g. passport
number).

Start date of the holdership of the car. This
date will often be the same as printed under
(I) on the registration certificate of the
vehicle.

End data of the holdership of the car.

If there is no owner of the vehicle (C.2) the
reference to the fact that the holder of the
registration certificate:

— is the vehicle owner,

— is not the vehicle owner,

— is not identified by the registration

certificate as being the vehicle owner.

(C.2)

(C.2.1)

(C.2.2)

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/63

Item

M/O (1)

Remarks

Prüm Y/N

(C.2.3)

male, female

individual, association, company, firm, etc.

An identifier that uniquely identifies the
person or the company.

The type of ID Number (e.g. passport
number).

Start date of the ownership of the car.

End data of the ownership of the car.

(D.1) e.g. Ford, Opel, Renault, etc.

(D.3) e.g. Focus, Astra, Megane.

(J) mopeds, motorbikes, cars, etc.

(B) Date of first registration of the vehicle
somewhere in the world.

(I) Date of the registration to which the
specific certificate of the vehicle refers.

End data of the registration to which the
specific certificate of the vehicle refers. It is
possible this date indicates the period of
validity as printed on the document if not
unlimited (document abbreviation = H).

Scrapped, stolen, exported, etc.

(P.2)

(P.1)

Regular, transito, etc.

The first unique document ID as printed on
the vehicle document.

A second document ID as printed on the
vehicle document.

Address

Gender

Date of birth

Legal entity

Place of Birth

ID Number

Type of ID Number

Start date ownership

End date ownership

Data relating to vehicles

Licence number

Chassis number/VIN

Country of registration

Make

Commercial type of the vehicle

Nature of the vehicle/EU Category
Code

Date of first registration

Start date (actual) registration

End date registration

Status

Start date status

End date status

kW

Capacity

Type of licence number

Vehicle document id 1

Vehicle document id 2 (3)

Data relating to insurances

Insurance company name

Begin date insurance

End date insurance

Address

Insurance number

M

M

M

M

O

O

O

O

O

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

O

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

L 210/64

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Item

M/O (1)

Remarks

Prüm Y/N

ID number

Type of ID number

O

O

An identifier that uniquely identifies the
company.

The type of ID number (e.g. number of the
Chamber of Commerce)

N

N

(1) M = mandatory when available in national register, O = optional.
(2) Harmonised document abbreviation, see Council Directive 1999/37/EC of 29 April 1999.
(3)

In Luxembourg two separate vehicle registration document ID's are used.

2.

Data Security

2.1.

Overview

The Eucaris software application handles secure communication to the other Member States and communicates
to the back-end legacy systems of Member States using XML. Member States exchange messages by directly
sending them to the recipient. The data centre of a Member State is connected to the TESTA network of EU.

The XML-messages sent over the network are encrypted. The technique to encrypt these messages is SSL. The
messages sent to the back-end are plain text XML-messages since the connection between the application and the
back-end shall be in a protected environment.

A client application is provided which can be used within a Member State to query their own register or other
Member States' registers. The clients will be identified by means of user-id/password or a client certificate. The
connection to a user may be encrypted, but this is the responsibility of each individual Member State.

2.2.

Security Features related to message exchange

The security design is based on a combination of HTTPS and XML signature. This alternative uses XML-signature
to sign all messages sent so the server and can authenticate the sender of the message by checking the signature.
1-sided SSL (only a server certificate) is used to protect the confidentiality and integrity of the message in transit
and provides protection against deletion/replay and insertion attacks. Instead of bespoke software development to
implement 2-sided SSL, XML-signature is implemented. Using XML-signature is closer to the web services
roadmap than 2-sided SSL and therefore more strategic.

The XML-signature can be implemented in several ways but the chosen approach is to use XML Signature as part
of the Web Services Security (WSS). WSS specifies how to use XML-signature. Since WSS builds upon the SOAP
standard, it is logical to adhere to the SOAP standard as much as possible.

2.3.

Security features not related to message exchange

2.3.1.

A u t h e n t i c a t i o n o f u s e r s

The users of the Eucaris web application authenticate themselves using a username and password. Since standard
Windows authentication is used, Member States can enhance the level of authentication of users if needed by
using client certificates.

2.3.2.

U s e r r o l e s

The Eucaris software application supports different user roles. Each cluster of services has its own authorisation.
E.g. (exclusive) users of the ‘“Treaty of Eucaris” — functionality’ may not use the ‘“Prüm” — functionality’.
Administrator services are separated from the regular end-user roles.

2.3.3.

L o g g i n g a n d t r a c i n g o f m e s s a g e e x c h a n g e

Logging of all message types is facilitated by the Eucaris software application. An administrator function allows
the national administrator to determine which messages are logged: requests from end-users, incoming requests
from other Member States, provided information from the national registers, etc.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/65

The application can be configured to use an internal database for this logging, or an external (Oracle) database.
The decision on what messages have to be logged clearly depends on logging facilities elsewhere in the legacy
systems and connected client applications.

The header of each message contains information on the requesting Member State, the requesting organisation
within that Member State and the user involved. Also the reason of the request is indicated.

By means of the combined logging in the requesting and responding Member State complete tracing of any
message exchange is possible (e.g. on request of a citizen involved).

Logging is configured through the Eucaris web client (menu Administration, Logging configuration). The logging
functionality is performed by the Core System. When logging is enabled, the complete message (header and body)
is stored in one logging record. Per defined service, and per message type that passes along the Core System, the
logging level can be set.

Logging Levels

The following logging levels are possible:

Private — Message is logged: The logging is NOT available to the extract logging service but is available on a
national level only, for audits and problem solving.

None — Message is not logged at all.

Message Types

Information exchange between Member States consists of several messages, of which a schematic representation is
given in the figure below.

The possible message types (in the figure shown for the Eucaris Core System of Member State X) are the following:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Request to Core System_Request message by Client

Request to Other Member State_Request message by Core System of this Member State

Request to Core System of this Member State_Request message by Core System of other Member State

Request to Legacy Register_Request message by Core System

Request to Core System_Request message by Legacy Register

Response from Core System_Request message by Client

Response from Other Member State_Request message by Core System of this Member State

Response from Core System of this Member State_Request message by other Member State

Response from Legacy Register_Request message by Core System

10. Response from Core System_Request message by Legacy Register

The following information exchanges are shown in the figure:

— Information request from Member State X to Member State Y — blue arrows. This request and response

consists of message types 1, 2, 7 and 6, respectively,

— Information request from Member State Z to Member State X — red arrows. This request and response

consists of message types 3, 4, 9 and 8, respectively,

— Information request from the legacy register to its core system (this route also includes a request from a
custom client behind the legacy register) — green arrows. This kind of request consists of message types
5 and 10,

L 210/66

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

Figure: Message types for logging

2.3.4.

H a r d w a r e S e c u r i t y M o d u l e

A Hardware Security Module is not used.

A Hardware Security Module (HSM) provides good protection for the key used to sign messages and to identify
servers. This adds to the overall level of security but an HSM is expensive to buy/maintain and there are no
requirements to decide for a FIPS 140-2 level 2 or level 3 HSM. Since a closed network is used that mitigates
threats effectively, it is decided not to use an HSM initially. If an HSM is necessary e.g. to obtain accreditation, it
can be added to the architecture.

3.

Technical conditions of the data exchange

3.1.

General description of the Eucaris application

3.1.1.

O v e r v i e w

The Eucaris application connects all participating Member States in a mesh network where each Member State
communicates directly to another Member State. There is no central component needed for the communication
to be established. The Eucaris application handles secure communication to the other Member States and
communicates to the back-end legacy systems of Member States using XML. The following picture visualises this
architecture.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/67

Member State exchange messages by directly sending them to the recipient. The data centre of a Member State is
connected to the network used for the message exchange (TESTA). To access the TESTA network, Member States
connect to TESTA via their national gate. A firewall shall be used to connect to the network and a router connects
the Eucaris application to the firewall. Depending on the alternative chosen to protect the messages, a certificate is
used either by the router or by the Eucaris application.

A client application is provided which can be used within a Member State to query its own register or other
Member States' registers. The client application connects to Eucaris. The clients will be identified by means of
user-id/password or a client certificate. The connection to a user in an external organisation (e.g. police) may be
encrypted but this is the responsibility of each individual Member State.

3.1.2.

S c o p e o f

t h e s y s t e m

The scope of the Eucaris system is limited to the processes involved in the exchange of information between the
Registration Authorities in the Member States and a basic presentation of this information. Procedures and
automated processes in which the information is to be used, are outside the scope of the system.

Member States can choose either to use the Eucaris client functionality or to set up their own customised client
application. In the table below, it is described which aspects of the Eucaris system are mandatory to use and/or
prescribed and which are optional to use and/or free to determine by the Member States.

Eucaris aspects

M/O (1)

Remark

Network concept

Physical network

Core application

Client application

Security concept

Message specifications

Operation and Support

M

M

M

O

M

M

M

The concept is an ‘any-to-any’ communication.

TESTA

The core application of Eucaris has to be used to connect to the
other Member States. The following functionality is offered by the
core:

— Encrypting and signing of the messages;

— Checking of the identity of the sender;

— Authorisation of Member States and local users;

— Routing of messages;

— Queuing of asynchronous messages if the recipient service is

temporally unavailable;

— Multiple country inquiry functionality;

— Logging of the exchange of messages;

— Storage of incoming messages

In addition to the core application the Eucaris II client application
can be used by a Member State. When applicable, the core and
client application are modified under auspices of the Eucaris
organisation.

The concept is based on XML-signing by means of client
certificates and SSL-encryption by means of service certificates.

Every Member State has to comply with the message specifications
as set by the Eucaris organisation and this Council Decision. The
specifications can only be changed by the Eucaris organisation in
consultation with the Member States.

The acceptance of new Member States or a new functionality is
under auspices of the Eucaris organisation. Monitoring and help
desk functions are managed centrally by an appointed Member
State.

(1) M = mandatory to use or to comply with O = optional to use or to comply with.

L 210/68

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

3.2.

Functional and Non Functional Requirements

3.2.1.

G e n e r i c f u n c t i o n a l i t y

In this section the main generic functions have been described in general terms.

No

Description

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

The system allows the Registration Authorities of the Member States to exchange request and
response messages in an interactive way.

The system contains a client application, enabling end-users to send their requests and presenting the
response information for manual processing

The system facilitates ‘broadcasting’, allowing a Member State to send a request to all other Member
States. The incoming responses are consolidated by the core application in one response message to
the client application (this functionality is called a ‘Multiple Country Inquiry).

The system is able to deal with different types of messages. User roles, authorisation, routing, signing
and logging are all defined per specific service.

The system allows the Member States to exchange batches of messages or messages containing a
large number of requests or replies. These messages are dealt with in an asynchronous way.

The system queues asynchronous messages if the recipient Member State is temporarily unavailable
and guarantees the deliverance as soon as the recipient is up again.

The system stores incoming asynchronous messages until they can be processed.

The system only gives access to Eucaris applications of other Member States, not to individual
organisations within those other Member States, i.e. each Registration Authority acts as the single
gateway between its national end-users and the corresponding Authorities in the other Member
States.

It is possible to define users of different Member States on one Eucaris server and to authorise them
following the rights of that Member State.

Information on the requesting Member State, organisation and end user are included in the
messages.

The system facilitates logging of the exchange of messages between the different Member States and
between the core application and the national registration systems.

The system allows a specific secretary, which is an organisation or Member State explicitly appointed
for this task, to gather logged information on messages sent/received by all the participating Member
States, in order to produce statistical reports.

Each Member State indicates itself what logged information is made available for the secretary and
what information is ‘private’.

The system allows the National Administrators of each Member State to extract statistics of use.

The system enables addition of new Member States through simple administrative tasks.

3.2.2.

U s a b i l i t y

No

Description

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

The system provides an interface for automated processing of messages by back-end systems/legacy
and enables the integration of the user interface in those systems (customised user-interface).

The system is easy to learn, self explanatory and contains help-text.

The system is documented to assist Member States in integration, operational activities and future
maintenance (e.g. reference guides, functional/technical documentation, operational guide, …).

The user interface is multi-lingual and offers facilities for the end-user to select a preferred language.

The user interface contains facilities for a Local Administrator to translate both screen-items and
coded information to the national language.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/69

3.2.3.

R e l i a b i l i t y

No

Description

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

The system is designed as a robust and dependable operational system which is tolerant to operator
errors and which will recover cleanly from power cuts or other disasters. It must be possible to
restart the system with no or minimal loss of data.

The system must give stable and reproducible results.

The system has been designed to function reliably. It is possible to implement the system in a
configuration that guarantees an availability of 98 % (by redundancy, the use of back-up servers, etc.)
in each bilateral communication.

It is possible to use part of the system, even during failure of some components (if Member State C is
down, Member States A and B are still able to communicate). The number of single points of failure
in the information chain should be minimised.

The recovery time after a severe failure should be less than one day. It should be possible to minimise
down-time by using remote support, e.g. by a central service desk.

3.2.4.

P e r f o r m a n c e

No

Description

26.

27.

28.

29.

The system can be used 24x7. This time-window (24x7) is then also required from the Member
States’ legacy systems.

The system responds rapidly to user requests irrespective of any background tasks. This is also
required from the Parties legacy systems to ensure acceptable response time. An overall response
time of 10 seconds maximum for a single request is acceptable.

The system has been designed as a multi-user system and in such a way that background tasks can
continue while the user performs foreground tasks.

The system has been designed to be scaleable in order to support the potential increase of number of
messages when new functionality is added or new organisations or Member States are added.

3.2.5.

S e c u r i t y

No

Description

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

The system is suited (e.g. in its security measures) for the exchange of messages containing privacy-
sensitive personal data (e.g. car owner/holders), classified as EU restricted.

The system is maintained in such a way that unauthorised access to the data is prevented.

The system contains a service for the management of the rights and permissions of national end-
users.

Member States are able to check the identity of the sender (at Member State level), by means of XML-
signing.

Member States must explicitly authorise other Member States to request specific information.

The system provides at application level a full security and encryption policy compatible with the
level of security required in such situations. Exclusiveness and integrity of the information is
guaranteed by the use of XML-signing and encryption by means of SSL-tunnelling.

All exchange of messages can be traced by means of logging.

Protection is provided against deletion attacks (a third party deletes a message) and replay or
insertion attacks (a third party replays or inserts a message).

The system makes use of certificates of a Trusted Third Party (TTP).

The system is able to handle different certificates per Member State, depending on the type of
message or service.

L 210/70

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

No

40.

41.

Description

The security measures at application level are sufficient to allow the use of non accredited networks.

The system is able to use novice security techniques such as an XML-firewall.

3.2.6.

A d a p t a b i l i t y

No

42.

43.

Description

The system is extensible with new messages and new functionality. The costs of adaptations are
minimal. Due to the centralised development of application components.

Member States are able to define new message types for bilateral use. Not all Member States are
required to support all message types.

3.2.7.

S u p p o r t a n d M a i n t e n a n c e

No

Description

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

The system provides monitoring facilities for a central service-desk and/or operators concerning the
network and servers in the different Member States.

The system provides facilities for remote support by a central service-desk.

The system provides facilities for problem analysis.

The system can be expanded to new Member States.

The application can easily be installed by staff with a minimum of IT-qualifications and experience.
The installation procedure shall be as much as possible automated.

The system provides a permanent testing and acceptance environment.

The annual costs of maintenance and support has been minimised by adherence to market standards
and by creating the application in such a way that as little support as possible from a central service-
desk is required.

3.2.8.

D e s i g n r e q u i r e m e n t s

No

51.

52.

53.

Description

The system is designed and documented for an operational lifetime of many years.

The system has been designed in such a way that it is independent of the network provider.

The system is compliant with the existing HW/SW in the Member States by interacting with those
registration systems using open standard web service technology (XML, XSD, SOAP, WSDL, HTTP(s),
Web services, WSS, X.509, etc.).

3.2.9.

A p p l i c a b l e s t a n d a r d s

No

54.

55.

56.

The system is compliant with data protection issues as stated in Regulation EC 45/2001 (Articles 21,
22 and 23) and Directive 95/46/EC.

Description

The system complies with the IDA Standards.

The system supports UTF8.

6.8.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 210/71

CHAPTER 4: Evaluation

1.

Evaluation procedure according to Article 20 (Preparation of decisions according to Article 25(2) of decision
2008/615/JHA)

1.1.

Questionnaire

The relevant Council Working Group shall draw up a questionnaire concerning each of the automated data
exchanges set out in Chapter 2 of Decision 2008/615/JHA.

As soon as a Member State believes it fulfils the prerequisites for sharing data in the relevant data category, it shall
answer the relevant questionnaire.

1.2.

Pilot run

With a view to evaluating the results of the questionnaire, the Member State that wishes to start sharing data shall
carry out a pilot run together with one or more other Member States already sharing data under the Council
Decision. The pilot run takes place shortly before or shortly after the evaluation visit.

The conditions and arrangements for this pilot run will be identified by the relevant Council Working Group and
be based upon prior individual agreement with the concerned Member State. The Member States taking part in
the pilot run will decide on the practical details.

1.3.

Evaluation visit

With a view to evaluating the results of the questionnaire, an evaluation visit shall take place in the Member State
that wishes to start sharing data.

The conditions and arrangement for this visit will be identified by the relevant Working Group and be based upon
prior individual agreement between the concerned Member State and the evaluation team. The concerned
Member State will enable the evaluation team to check the automated exchange of data in the data category or
categories to be evaluated, in particular by organising a programme for the visit which takes into account the
requests of the evaluation team.

Within one month, the evaluation team will produce a report on the evaluation visit and will forward it to the
Member State concerned for its comments. If appropriate, this report will be revised by the evaluation team on
the basis of the Member State's comments.

The evaluation team will consist of no more than three experts, designated by the Member States taking part in
the automated data exchange in the data categories to be evaluated, who have experience regarding the concerned
data category, have the appropriate national security clearance to deal with these matters and are willing to take
part in at least one evaluation visit in another Member State. The Commission will be invited to join the
evaluation team as observer.

The members of the evaluation team will respect the confidential nature of the information they acquire when
carrying out their task.

1.4.

Report to the Council

An overall evaluation report, summarising the results of the questionnaires, the evaluation visit and the pilot run,
will be presented to the Council for its decision pursuant to Article 25(2) of Decision 2008/615/JHA.

2.

Evaluation procedure according to Article 21

2.1.

Statistics and report

Each Member State will compile statistics on the results of the automated data exchange. In order to ensure
comparability, the model for statistics will be compiled by the relevant Council Working Group.

These statistics will be forwarded annually to the General Secretariat, which will produce a summary overview for
the elapsed year, and to the Commission.

In addition, Member States will be requested on a regular basis not to exceed once per year to provide further
information on the administrative, technical and financial implementation of automated data exchange as needed
to analyse and improve the process. On the basis of this information, a report will be produced for the Council.

L 210/72

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.8.2008

2.2.

Revision

Within reasonable time, the Council will examine the evaluation mechanism described here and revise it as
necessary.

3.

E x p e r t m e e t i n g s

Within the relevant Council Working Group, experts will meet regularly to organise and implement the
abovementioned evaluation procedures as well as to share experience and discuss possible improvements. Where
applicable, the results of these expert discussions will be incorporated into the report referred to in 2.1.