8.1 This draft Resolution aims to combat
travel document fraud by setting minimum security standards for
all aspects of travel documents. When we last considered it (in
October 1999), we had a number of questions for the Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton).
8.2 The Minister of State at the Home Office
(Mrs Barbara Roche) has now responded to our letter. She repeats
each of our questions before addressing them, as follows:
"The Minister's comments
about the advisability of offering Member States 'options in respect
of high quality features to be used in travel documents' leaves
us unsure as to whether he considers that the current document
does this satisfactorily or not. Some clarification would be helpful.
"The optional nature of the current document
does allow for technological developments to be accommodated and
the introduction of new security devices, providing they are at
least equivalent in security value to the range of security features
currently specified in the draft Resolution.
"Moreover discussion of the draft Resolution
is likely to lead to a broadening of the definitions used to cover
various types of security features. This will enable choice in
terms of the genre of actual security devices used by Member States
in their documents while meeting minimum security standards by
using devices of equivalent security value. This will also avoid
a risk of monopoly control being acquired by the producers of
proprietary security products.
"We are somewhat surprised that the Resolution
simply states that 'Member States shall endeavour to apply these
minimum security standards to travel documents which they issue
to nationals of third states or stateless persons', and that the
Government is apparently content with this wording. Is the forgery
of such documents a matter of unimportance?
"The primary aim of the proposal is to produce
a document acceptable to all Member States and which can be used
as a guide for candidate countries developing their travel documents
prior to EU membership. The proposal seeks to introduce a range
of minimum security standards to be introduced into new documents
as soon as possible. The draft Resolution focuses on the principal
travel documents issued by Member States, i.e. passports and identity
cards. These principal documents are targeted by criminals as
they immediately provide the holder with all the benefits of citizenship
of an EU Member State. The draft Resolution seeks to encompass
all travel documents issued by Member States but has prioritized
the various types of document, to focus on compliance of incorporation
of the minimum security standards in new documents which are most
at risk.
"The draft Resolution is less stringent in respect
of travel documents issued by Member States to nationals of third
states or stateless persons as those documents do not confer benefits
of citizenship of an EU Member State and will be subject to more
detailed examination at immigration, police and service-providing
points within Member States. These documents are, for these reasons,
less subject to abuse than EU Member States' national travel documents
and are, accordingly, attributed lesser significance for upgrading
(where necessary) in the implementation period planned for the
Resolution.
"We note that the form of the draft instrument
is that of a Resolution of the Representatives of the Governments
of the Member States of the European Union, meeting within the
Council, as is customary in this field. It would apparently constitute,
if adopted, an international agreement independent of any legal
base in either the Treaty of European Union or the EC Treaty (and,
consistently, the preamble makes no reference to any such). We
therefore invite the Minister to explain the references in the
EM to proposed alternative legal bases in those Treaties.
"Earlier advice had suggested that the appropriate
legal base for the proposal could be either Article 63 TEC as
a measure to combat illegal immigration or possibly Article 29
TEU, relating to police co-operation measures to combat fraud.
The EM therefore reflected these possibilities. Further consideration
suggests that the current format of the proposal, as a Resolution
of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States
of the European Union, meeting within the Council, is the most
appropriate, given that it accords with the terms of the 1981
Resolution on the establishment of the common format passport.
"Finally, we shall, of course, wish to know
the outcome of any discussions about the form of, and the appropriate
legal base for, the measure and, on the latter, any views on the
respective merits of the canvassed alternatives that the Minister
may have.
"We shall keep the Committee informed. The Government
considers that the current text and format are most acceptable."
