Jaunted

Europe Travel

Europe Wants Your Fingerprints

February 18, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 0 Comments

We might have been excited about passport free travel within the European Union, but actually getting into Europe might prove a bit more troublesome in the coming years.

The European Commission--basically the government of Europe--has begun discussions on requiring all visitors entering the EU to submit to fingerprinting and perhaps other biometric checks such as digital photos or iris scans. Some critics are unimpressed, like Privacy International, which said:

It's boys with toys. They want to have the toys the Americans have.

Whatever the decision, such a system wouldn't be implemented until 2015 at the earliest, so we shouldn't have to suffer US-style immigration queuing in Europe just yet.

Related Stories:
· Europe Wants Visitors Fingerprinted [USA Today]
· Put Away Your Passport in Europe [Jaunted]
· UK to USA: Drop Dead [Jaunted]

[Photo: Swirlyarts]