Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 79It is intended that the Hague Programme will facilitate the establishment of agreed areasupon which Member States’ ministers for Justice and Home Affairs wish to work at theEU level. The aim is to harmonise policies within the EU that can then be taken back tonational parliaments.Among the many policies within the Hague Programme, the Council called for “acoherent approach and harmonised solutions in the EU on biometric identifiers anddata.” 192 This was later elaborated as:“The European Council invites the Council, the Commission andMember States to continue their efforts to integrate biometricidentifiers in travel documents, visa, residence permits, EU citizens’passports and information systems without delay and to prepare forthe development of minimum standards for national identity cards,taking into account ICAO standards.”The European Commission then had the responsibility to develop an action plan; itidentified ten priority policy-areas. 193 Under the priority of ‘Internal borders, externalborders and visas: developing an integrated management of external borders for a saferUnion’, the Commission has set a deadline:“In order to enhance travel documents security while maintaining fullrespect for fundamental rights, biometric identifiers will be integratedin travel and identification documents from 2005 onwards.” 194This means that most of these decisions are likely to take place under the UKpresidency of the EU, placing the UK in the awkward situation of being the onlycountry with a Bill before its Parliament questioning the need for an identity card, evenas it has the task of harmonising and standardising identity cards across Europe. It is themore challenging because the UK is not party to the Schengen agreement, and is thusunder no obligation to adhere to the requirement for standardised identity documents.An initiative that began as an EU policy of ensuring a coherent standard for drivinglicences has expanded incrementally to include visas, passports and residence permitsfor third-country nationals. 195 It has now reached a point where it is likely that the EUwill decide not only whether any given member state will have ID cards, but also theirform and structure.ID in Common Law, Commonwealth, English-Speaking CountriesWhen a Canadian Parliamentary Committee reviewed the idea of a biometric identitycard, it decided to conduct a tour through countries with ID cards. Following a visit tothe UK, they moved on to mainland Europe:192 ibid.193 ‘The Hague Programme: Ten priorities for the next five years – The Partnership for European renewal in the fieldof Freedom, Security and Justice’, Communication from the Commission, COM(2005)184final, May 10, 2005.194 ‘The Hague Programme: Ten priorities for the next five years’, A Partnership for European Renewal,195 See the European Commission Justice and Home Affairs website on ‘Making EU visa and residence documentsmore secure’, available athttp://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/doc_centre/freetravel/documents/doc_freetravel_documents_en.htm.