By MassPrivateI
A recent European Union (EU) announcement about national IDs will destroy millions of people’s privacy and create a near-global biometric database.
An article in State Watch News revealed that the EU has agreed to create a MANDATORY national biometric ID card.
Measures being negotiated as part of the EU’s ‘Security Union’ are moving ahead swiftly, with the Council and Parliament reaching provisional agreements on new rules for immigration liaison officers, the EU’s Visa Code and the introduction of mandatory biometric national identity cards; and the Council agreeing its negotiating position on the new Frontex Regulation.
Earlier this week, the Nepal government announced their plans to roll out a national biometric ID card that will affect 30 million people.
Last month, I wrote an article warning people about the global effort to restrict everyone’s right to travel. But what is happening across Europe and Asia should send chills down everyone’s back.
If you combine what is happening in the EU with America’s national biometric ID card, Real-ID, it becomes painfully obvious that everyone’s right to travel freely is in jeopardy.
512 million people will be forced to give up their privacy
A European national biometric ID card is all but a certainty.
All the EU needs is for 28 ambassadors to say yes, and just like that 512.6 million citizens will be forced to give up their privacy if they want to travel.
Today, representatives of the Council Presidency and the European Parliament reached an informal agreement on a regulation to improve the functioning of the European network of immigration liaison officers. It will now be presented to EU ambassadors for confirmation on behalf of the Council.
The Brussel Times claims that the member countries would have eight years to comply when the law takes affect.
How will this affect American travelers?
Any American wishing to visit any of the 28 countries that make up the EU will be profiled and given risk assessments by the “European Travel Information and Authorization System or ETIAS”
Since citizens of countries who do not need a visa for travel purposes in the EU do not need to go through a long process of applying for the visa, ETIAS will make sure that these people are not a security threat. This travel authorization system will gather, keep track of, and update necessary information regarding visitors to determine whether it is safe for them to enter Schengen countries. (Source)
If ETIAS sounds a lot like Homeland Security’s “U.S Electronic System for Travel Authorization System” and their secret No-Fly list give yourself a gold star, because that is exactly what it is modeled after.
If you and your family plan on visiting a country for an extended period of time, you will have no choice but to submit biometrics to the EU.
At the same time, the EU is also upgrading the Visa Information System (VIS) – which is currently used to hold information on all applicants for short-stay Schengen visas, but is being expanded to include information on long-stay visas and residence documents; to enforce mandatory biometrics in long-stay visas (currently a national competence); and to include the fingerprints of children from the age of six and up. All visa applicants will also be profiled. (To learn more about traveling to Europe click here.)
Teenagers forced to carry national biometric ID cards
The Irish Times warned that children older than 12 years old would be forced to carry national biometric ID cards.
It proposed making biometric data mandatory for those countries with ID cards and said EU citizens’ ID cards (older than 12 years) and non-EU family members’ residence cards would now include biometric data, namely fingerprints and facial images, stored on a chip.
The State Watch article also warned that national biometric ID cards must be updated every 5 years and less for minors.
Identity cards will have a minimum period of validity of 5 years and a maximum period of validity of 10 years. Member states may issue ID cards with a longer validity for persons aged 70 and above. If issued, ID cards for minors may have a period of validity of less than 5 years.
Modeling ETIAS after Homeland Security’s, TSA is appalling. Forcing millions of people to carry national biometric ID cards has all the earmarks of a European police state.
Didn’t we learn anything from World War II?
You can read more at the MassPrivateI blog, where this article first appeared.
Top image credit: The Irish Times
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