18 Apr 2018 Eurosmart welcomes the EC proposal to introduce a harmonized contactless electronic security feature on Member states ID cards
On the 17th of April, The European Commission tabled a proposal for a regulation [1] to improve the security features of EU citizens’ identity cards and residence cards with the aim at curbing document fraud.
Eurosmart and its members are fully committed in achieving the highest level of trust and security in particular in the fields of physical and digital ID documents. The Digital Security Industry welcomes the European Commission’s proposal to set common security standards across the EU in the line with the ICAO requirements [2], and stresses the fact that facial and fingerprints data stored on a certified secure element, remains the best option to prevent bad uses and falsifications.
“National ID cards and electronic passports are likewise used in Europe to travel, by embedding a harmonised contactless secure element storing the face and fingerprint biometrics will help to increase security within the Union” said Stefane Mouille Eurosmart ,President.
The proposal will contribute to reduce the space in which terrorists and criminals are able to operate by creating an interoperability between the different national ID cards, so that all the EU citizens can exercise their free movement rights in a harmonized and highly secure way.
“We are pleased to see European Commission promoting technologies that are certified under the SOGIS MRA scheme in a such highly sensible use case” complemented Mouille.
The use of this secure technology opens the door to a wide spectrum of new features that could help both business and citizens in everyday life such as electronic identification, e-signature and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market as set out by the 2014 eIDAS regulation[3].
[1] EC Proposal for a regulation 2018/0104 (COD) on strengthening the security of identity cards of Union citizens and of residence documents issued to Union citizens and their family members exercising their right of free movement.
[2] ICAO document 9303, part 3 (seventh edition, 2015) on machine readability.
[3] Regulation eIDAS (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market
