Back Door ID Cards

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Brussels, 11 November 2005

NOTE from : Presidency to : Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum on : 17-18 November 2005

Subject : Draft Conclusions of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States on common minimum security standards for Member States' national identity cards

1. The Hague Programme of 5 November 2004 requested the Council and the Commission to prepare for the development of minimum standards for national identity cards. In addition, the special Justice and Home Affairs Council of 13 July 2005, called in response to the London bombings, reinforced the need for this work in the following terms: “The Council…calls on Member States to agree common standards for security features and secure issuing procedures for ID cards (December 2005), with detailed standards agreed as soon as possible thereafter.”

2. The Article 6 Committee has considered the physical security features of identity cards. They have now produced interim conclusions; their final conclusions will be issued in due course, in accordance with the remit of the 13 July Justice and Home Affairs Council.

3. In parallel to this work, an ad-hoc group of experts from Member States has considered the security of issuing procedures and has produced conclusions.

4. SCIFA is invited to agree the attached Conclusions with a view to submitting them for adoption by Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting in the margins of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 1-2 December 2005.

Download ID-Cards-Conclusions.pdf from Statewatch