Note on the plans of the Dutch Minister of Government Reform and Kingdom Relations on the central administration of passports and other travel documents

In a letter of 24 February 2006 to the Dutch Parliament, the Dutch minister of Government Reform and Kingdom Relations, Alexander Pechtold, has confirmed his earlier plans of setting up a central administration of passports and other travel documents (TK 2005-2006, 25764, nr. 29). Minister Pechtold expects to put forward a bill proposing both the centralisation of the administration of travel documents and the incorporation of fingerprints in the system of the administration of these documents in the autumn of 2006. In August 2006, Dutch travel documents will be equipped with a chip holding a facial scan. Pechtold’s announcement comes at a time where European Data Supervisor Peter Hustinx has criticised the use of biometrics as unique identifiers: ’biometrics are based on probabilities and will not deliver the unambiguous key that is by definition required for primary key for databases. This is likely to result in a breach of the principle of data quality’. (Comments of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) on the Communication of the Commission on the interoperability of European databases, 10 March 2006 ).

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Letter Pechtold