Blair has 'false Brussels alibi' for fingerprinting

4.02.53pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 29th Nov 2004

Commenting on the assertion today by Tony Blair that 'now we are going to have to use it (biometrics) for passports we might as well give ourselves a full-blown identity card', Baroness Sarah Ludford, London MEP and Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman responded:

"His Brussels alibi is a totally false one. Sneaking an unpopular measure through a European backdoor and then blaming Brussels has reached new heights of cheek. In fact, the fingerprints of Blair and Blunkett are all over this scheme."

"The decision to force mandatory fingerprinting as well as facial scans on every EU passport-holder is voluntarily and unanimously taken by EU governments, and none with more enthusiasm than Blair and Blunkett."

The 25 EU governments are planning to push through these obligations for all European Union passports at the meeting of Justice & Home Affairs ministers on Thursday December 2nd/Friday 3rd.

The pretext is that this is required to fulfil the 'visa waiver' demands of the United States. But these demands only relate to internationally agreed digital photos, not even a 'biometric' facial scan, let alone 'biometric' fingerprints. The EU cannot in any case force governments to introduce national ID cards

Sarah Ludford added:

"Mandatory finger-printing of all EU citizens - almost certainly to be followed by a Europe-wide database - is a major assault on our civil liberties. It's a total scandal that it is going through without any proper parliamentary scrutiny: while the European Parliament is denied 'co-decision', ministers tell MPs 'oh, it's required by Brussels'.