The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a plan to fingerprint all foreigners visiting 24 European countries. The electronic register, similar to a policy adopted by the United States after the September 11, 2001, attacks, could go into effect by 2015 if governments and European lawmakers agree, the European Union executive said.
The scheme is among Commission proposals to fight terrorism, organised crime and illegal migration. Travellers can now cross national borders between 24 member states in the enlarged border-free "Schengen" zone without checks.
EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said the focus would be on better use of modern technology "to facilitate travelling of honest people, while preventing terrorists, criminals, illegal migrants from entering the EU". "We cannot have mafia, or traffickers, or terrorists, using better technology than our police," he told a news conference. The entry/exit electronic register, which has sparked privacy concerns, could be complemented by a form air travellers would fill in on the Internet before flying to the bloc.
The extra security measures could be compensated by accelerated, automated check-in procedures for registered travellers considered safe enough by consular authorities. All EU states except Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria are part of the borderless area, to which non-EU members Norway and Iceland also belong.
The entry/exit register would collect fingerprints and pictures of all foreigners entering the Schengen area for a stay of up to three months, the EU Commission said in its proposal.
The register would record the time and place of entry, the length of stay authorised, and would automatically alert authorities if a person stayed longer than allowed. The EU executive suggested frequent travellers could apply to be registered as safe travellers and be allowed to use accelerated, automatic check-in of their biometric data, where a machine would check the traveller, on a separate lane.
The EU already stores asylum-seekers' fingerprints and plans the same for visa applicants. EU citizens would not be fingerprinted in the new register. But nearly all of them already have to give fingerprints to be stored in an electronic chip on new passports. Automated gates could also be used for them too, the EU executive said.
In another US-style security move, EU interior ministers have given preliminary backing to a plan to make airlines provide data on incoming passengers, including their credit card details and addresses. Such data would be kept for 13 years.