E-Passports and automated border crossing: a view on interoperability issues

The new electronic passport (also known as biometric passport) was first introduced in the EU in 2006 with Council Regulation No 2252/2004 of 13 December which defined the standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States with the purpose of improving document security and preventing falsification of documents The Regulation further prescribed that as from June 2009, the so called Schengen EU Member States would be issuing second generation electronic passports, i.e. biometric passport with a secondary biometrics: fingerprints in addition to the facial image required by the ICAO Document 9303 and already stored in first generation biometric passports. The paper ourlines the security and privacy characteristics of the electronic passports and illustrates the main issues in interoperability.JRC.DG.G.6-Security technology assessmen