ECO-TERROR
Europe Moves Toward Issuing Passports With Data Chips embedded with digital fingerprints or eye scans, according to a plan approved by European leaders [...]
The agreement announced here today does not commit governments to a timetable for the chip-laden documents. The agreement says that "a coherent approach is needed in the E.U. on biometric identifiers" for visas and passports. It also allocates 140 million euros, or about $164 million, for further study of biometric identifiers and other immigration-related issues.
But an official from the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, said the union's governments are bound by a timetable set out by the United States government after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Under the United States' Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, countries whose citizens enjoy visa-free travel to the United States - as is the case with most if not all of Western Europe - must issue passports with biometric identifiers no later than Oct. 26, 2004.