Council Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 of 13 December 2004 on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States

Article 1

They shall be issued as individual documents.

The Commission shall present a report on the requirements for children travelling alone or accompanied, crossing the external borders of the Member States not later than 26 June 2012 and propose, if necessary, appropriate initiatives in order to ensure a common approach regarding the rules for the protection of children crossing the external borders of the Member States.

2a. The following persons shall be exempt from the requirement to give fingerprints:

• (a) Children under the age of 12 years. The age limit of 12 years is provisional. The report referred to in Article 5a shall contain a review of the age limit, if necessary accompanied by a proposal to amend the age limit. Without prejudice to the consequences of the application of Article 5a, Member States which, in their national law adopted before 26 June 2009, provide for an age limit below 12 years may apply that limit during a transitional period until 4 years after 26 June 2009. However, the age limit during the transitional period may not be below 6 years of age;

• (b) persons, where fingerprinting is physically impossible.

2b. Where fingerprinting of the designated fingers is temporarily impossible, Member States shall allow the fingerprinting of the other fingers. Where it is also temporarily impossible to take fingerprints of any of the other fingers, they may issue a temporary passport having a validity of 12 months or less.

Article 1a

Article 2

Additional technical specifications in accordance with international standards, including in particular the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), for passports and travel documents relating to the following shall be established in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 5(2):

• (a) additional security features and requirements, including enhanced anti-forgery, counterfeiting and falsification standards;

• (b) technical specifications for the storage medium of the biometric features and their security, including prevention of unauthorised access;

• (c) requirements for quality and common technical standards for the facial image and the fingerprints.

Article 3

Article 4

• (a) the authenticity of the passport or travel document;

• (b) the identity of the holder by means of directly available comparable features when the passport or travel document is required to be produced by law;

The checking of the additional security features shall be carried out without prejudice to Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) ([^E0014]). The failure of the matching in itself shall not affect the validity of the passport or travel document for the purpose of the crossing of external borders.

Article 5

The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at two months.

Article 5a

The Commission shall, not later than 26 June 2012, submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report based on a large scale and in-depth study carried out by an independent authority and supervised by the Commission, which shall examine the reliability and technical feasibility, including through an evaluation of the accuracy of the systems in operation, of using the fingerprints of children under the age of 12 for identification and verification purposes, including a comparison of the false rejection rates occurring in each Member State and, based on the results of that study, an analysis of the need for common rules regarding the matching process. If necessary, the report shall be accompanied by proposals to adapt this Regulation.

Article 6

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Member States shall apply this Regulation:

• (a) as regards the facial image: at the latest 18 months;

• (b) as regards fingerprints: at the latest 36 months;

following the adoption of the additional technical specifications referred to in Article 2. However, the validity of passports and travel documents already issued shall not be affected.

The second subparagraph of Article 1(1) shall be implemented at the latest on 26 June 2012. However, the initial validity for the holder of the document shall not be affected.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in the Member States in accordance with the Treaty establishing the European Community.

ANNEX

MINIMUM SECURITY STANDARDS OF PASSPORTS AND TRAVEL DOCUMENTS ISSUED BY THE MEMBER STATES

Introduction

This Annex lays down the minimum level of security that the Member States’ passports and travel documents are required to provide. The provisions in this Annex are concerned primarily with the biographical data page. The generic security features also apply to the other parts of passports and travel documents.

The biographical data page may consist of various basic materials. This Annex specifies the minimum level of security for the specific material that is used.

1. Material

The paper used for those sections of the passport or travel document giving personal particulars or other data shall meet the following minimum requirements:

• — no optical brighteners,

• — duotone watermarks,

• — security reagents to guard against attempts at tampering by chemical erasure,

• — coloured fibres (partly visible and partly fluorescent under UV light, or invisible and fluorescent in at least two colours),

• — UV-fluorescent planchettes are recommended (mandatory for stickers),

• — the use of security thread is recommended.

If the biographical data page is in sticker form, the watermark in the paper used for that page may be dispensed with. The watermark may also be dispensed with in the paper used for the inside of the passport or travel document covers. Security reagents are required on the inside covers only if data are entered there.

Stitching thread should be protected against substitution.

If a card for inserting personal data in the passport or travel document is made entirely of a synthetic substrate, it is not usually possible to incorporate the authentication marks used in passport or travel document paper. In the case of stickers and cards, the lack of marks in the materials shall be compensated for by measures in respect of security printing, use of an anti copying device, or an issuing technique according to sections 3, 4 and 5 over and above the following minimum standards.

2. Biographical data page

The passport or travel document shall contain a machine-readable biographical data page, which shall comply with Part 1 (machine-readable passports) of ICAO Document 9303 and the way they are issued shall comply with the specifications for machine-readable passports set out therein.

The portrait of the holder shall also appear on this page and shall not be affixed but integrated into the material of the biographical data page by the issuing techniques referred to in Section 5.

The biographical data shall be entered on the page following the title page in the passport or travel document. In any event, an inside cover page must no longer be used for biographical data.

The layout of the biographical data page shall be such that it is distinguishable from the other pages.

3. Printing techniques

The following printing techniques shall be used:

• A. Background printing:
• — two-tone guilloches or equivalent structures,
• — rainbow colouring, where possible fluorescent,
• — UV-fluorescent overprinting,
• — effective anti-counterfeiting and anti-falsification motifs (especially on the biographical data page) with optional use of microprinting,
• — reagent inks must be used on paper passport or travel document pages and stickers,
• — if the paper of the passport or travel document is well protected against attempts at tampering, the use of reagent inks is optional.

• B. Form printing With integrated microprinting (unless already included in background printing).

• C. Numbering On all pages inside the passport or travel document a unique document number should be printed (where possible with a special style of figures or typeface and in UV-fluorescent ink), or perforated or, in passport cards, a unique document number should be integrated using the same technique as for the biographical data. It is recommended that in passport cards the unique document number is visible on both sides of the card. If a sticker is used for biographical data the unique document number should be printed using fluorescent ink, and a special style of figures or typeface is obligatory. If stickers or non-laminated paper inside pages are used for biographical data, intaglio printing with latent image effect, microtext and ink with optically variable properties and a DOVID (diffractive optically variable image device) shall also be employed. Additional optically variable security devices shall also be used on passport cards made entirely of a synthetic substrate, at least through the use of a DOVID or equivalent measures.

4. Protection against copying

An optically variable (OVD) or equivalent device, which provides for the same level of identification and security as currently used in the uniform format for visas, shall be used on the biographical data page and shall take the form of diffractive structures which vary when viewed from different angles (DOVID) incorporated into the hot-sealed or an equivalent laminate (as thin as possible) or applied as an OVD overlay, or, on stickers or a non-laminated paper inside page, as metallised or partially de-metallised OVD (with intaglio overprinting) or equivalent devices.

The OVD devices should be integrated into the document as an element of a layered structure, effectively protecting against forgery and falsification. In documents made of paper, they should be integrated over as wide a surface as possible as an element of the hot-sealed or an equivalent laminate (as thin as possible) or applied as a security overlay, as described in section 5. In documents made of a synthetic substrate, they should be integrated in the card layer over as wide a surface as possible.

If a synthetic card is personalised by laser engraving, and an optically variable laser written device is incorporated therein, the diffractive OVD shall be applied at least in the form of a positioned metallised or transparent DOVID, to achieve enhanced protection against reproduction.

If a biographical data page is made of a synthetic substrate with paper core, the diffractive OVD shall be applied at least in the form of a positioned metallised or transparent DOVID, to achieve enhanced protection against reproduction.

5. Issuing technique

To ensure that passport or travel document data are properly secured against attempts at counterfeiting and falsification, biographical data including the holder’s portrait, the holder's signature and main issue data shall be integrated into the basic material of the document. Conventional methods of attaching the photograph shall no longer be used.

The following issuing techniques may be used:

• — laser printing,

• — thermotransfer,

• — ink-jet printing,

• — photographic,

• — laser-engraving that effectively penetrates into the card layers bearing the security characteristics.

To ensure that biographical and issue data are adequately protected against attempts at tampering, hot-seal or equivalent lamination (as thin as possible) with an anti-copying device is compulsory where laser printing, thermo-transfer or photographic techniques are used.

Travel documents shall be issued in machine-readable form. The layout of the biographical data page shall follow the specifications given in part 1 of ICAO Document 9303, and the issuing procedures shall meet the specifications it sets for machine-readable documents.

OJ C 98, 23.4.2004, p. 39.

[^E0002]: (²) Opinion of 2.12.2004 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

OJ C 310, 28.10.2000, p. 1.

OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

OJ L 164, 14.7.1995, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by the 2003 Act of Accession.

OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31. Directive as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1).

OJ L 239, 22.9.2000, p. 19. Convention at last amended by Regulation (EC) No 871/2004 (OJ L 162, 30.4.2004, p. 29).

OJ L 131, 1.6.2000, p. 43.

OJ L 64, 7.3.2002, p. 20.

OJ L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 36.

OJ L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 31.

[^E0012]: (¹²) Council document 13054/04 accessible on: http://register.consilium.eu.int

[^E0013]: (¹³) Council document 13464/04 and 13466/04 accessible on: http://register.consilium.eu.int

[^E0014]: OJ L 105, 13.4.2006, p. 1.