Fingerprints needed for EU visa

BRUSSELS: -- The European Commission on Friday adopted proposals for new rules obliging Thais and all non-European Union nationals to give their fingerprints when applying for a visa to travel to the bloc.

"This proposal creates the legal obligation to collect fingerprints from visa applicants," said the commission which is the EU's executive body.

The commission blueprint also gives a legal basis for improved cooperation between national consular offices set up in foreign countries by European Union governments.

Such consular cooperation covers sharing equipment for collecting fingerprints and the establishment of joint centres to receive visa applications.

The commission also said that fingerprints could be collected by "external service providers," presumably meaning the outsourced companies that currently handle visa details for many embassies in Bangkok, including European countries.

Concerns about data privacy, however, mean that this will need to be discussed further with the European Parliament and EU governments.

A European data watchdog last month criticized the EU for acting rashly in approving the use in passports and visas of biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, iris scans and the shape of the face for security checks.

The independent European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) said it would also scrutinise EU plans to set up bloc-wide data bases for issuing visas and allowing non-EU citizens to travel to the Union.

--DPA 2006-06-02

Does anyone know if this applies to the Schengen visa bloc or ALL EU countries ?