EU wants a biometric passport

The European Parliament approved last January 14th the introduction of biometric passports (especially based on fingerprints recognition) through the European Union. The parliamentarians emphasized the need of improving document security by introducing more reliable data. Only children under 12 years are exempted due to the insufficient reliability of their miniutae.

All EU countries should start issuing passports containing biometric as of end June this year. Current passports will be valid until 2012, when the rule is to be completely implemented.

More information: European Parliament