Security of identity cards of Union citizens and of residence documents

Key Points

The EESC:

• warmly welcomes the initiative under consideration, which it deems to be necessary and urgent, agrees with its legal basis, which is appropriate for the limited scope of the proposal, and approves of the choice of legal instrument. It confirms that the proposal complies with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as well as being in line with fundamental rights;
• agrees with the mandatory inclusion of a facial image of the holder of the card and two fingerprints in interoperable formats and also with the need for the separability of biometric data from any other data stored on these cards;
• believes that the Commission has not fully justified its legislative choice, nor has it explained the reasons that prevented it from putting forward a proposal based on greater legislative harmonisation, creating a genuine single system of identification documents;
• would have liked the Commission to consider the possibility of introducing a European identity card that would give European citizens the right to vote through such a card, even if it were necessary to use another legal basis;
• is concerned that the compliance costs involved in the new cards may fall on citizens in the form of amounts that may be indeterminate, inappropriate and disproportionate, since the decision is left entirely to Member State administrations;
• given the need for and urgency of this regulation, recommends shortening all the deadlines for its entry into force and future monitoring.