Justice, consumers and gender equality

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Identity and Residence Documents

Overall state of play:

Commission proposal: Adopted, 17.04.2018, COM (2018) 212
Legal act: Adopted Regulation (EU) 2019/1157, 20.06.2019

State of play, main conclusions, outlook

At the time of the Commission proposal, there was no EU legislative framework yet for identity and residence documents used when exercising the rights of free movement. Since addressing this issue has the potential to simplify the daily life of citizens, it has been taken up in REFIT.

In the 2013 EU Citizenship report, the Commission committed to work on solutions to remove obstacles faced in daily life by mobile EU citizens and their family members in relation to identity and residence documents. For instance, in essential daily commercial activities such as opening a bank account, signing a contract with utilities or telephony providers, the identity cards are not always accepted. They are also not always accepted for administrative purposes, for instance as a travel document at border controls. In addition, some cards have low (and in any case not common) security features, which may increase the risk of falsification.

The topic of identity and residence documents links strongly with security issues, as underlined in the 2016 Commission's Action Plan to strengthen the European response to travel document fraud. Secure travel and identity documents are crucial whenever it is necessary to establish without doubt the identity of a person. The 2017 EU Citizenship Report underlines that the more secure and easily recognisable identity cards and residence documents are, the easier it would be for citizens to exercise their EU citizenship rights. Public authorities, including border authorities, and businesses (such as shops, banks, utilities, etc.) would accept such documents easier.

Enhancing the security of these documents to prevent fraud and address security concerns, will increase acceptance by Member States and private operators. EU citizens will benefit when crossing borders or when using these documents in other cross-border situations as proving that they are actually residing in a specific country. It will also benefit the internal security and border control. The national authorities can rely on secured documents and will be able to fight against crime and fraud more effectively and prevent travel of foreign fighters or other persons presenting a risk to the internal security.

REFIT Platform

Following the submission raised by a citizen on the administrative difficulties faced by EU citizens when moving from one EU country to the other (LtL 242) the REFIT Platform, in its Opinion XIII.3a adopted in June 2017, encouraged the Commission to analyse the feasibility of harmonising identity and residence documents, or any of their key features, with to the objective to facilitate free movement and tackle the challenges encountered by EU mobile citizens in their host countries.

State of Play:

Adopted, 17.04.2018, COM (2018) 212

Which objective(s) does the Commission pursue?

The proposal aims to facilitate the exercise of EU free movement rights by mobile EU citizens and their family members by increasing the reliability and acceptance of their documents in cross-border situations. It also aims at enhancing European security by closing security gaps resulting from insecure documents.

Estimated savings and benefits

The Commission proposed measures that will improve the acceptance of documents across the EU and enhance the document’s security features. These measures will yield direct and recurrent cost savings and reduced hassle costs for Union citizens and their family members, public administrations such as border guards and public and private service operators like airlines, health, banks and insurance and social security providers.

Other benefits include a reduction of document fraud and identity theft and generally a reduction of crime, fraud and terrorism within the EU and at its borders. The inclusion of facial image and fingerprints identifiers will improve the identification of persons. It would align the level of document security of identity cards of EU citizens and residence cards issued to third country family members to the standards of passports issued to EU citizens and residence permits issued to third country nationals who are not family members of EU citizens.

Improved documents will facilitate the free movement of persons as they will allow for quicker, easier and more secure use of documents.

State of Play:

• Adopted: Regulation (EU) 2019/1157, 20.06.2019

The co-legislators have extended the phasing-out periods of existing cards that do not comply with the new rules. While this means that it may take longer until citizens benefit from the new document standards, they will also face less hassle when replacing their documents as most will be replaced after their normal expiry date.

State of Play:

Entry into application on 2.08.2021. First implementation report due by August 2023.

The new Regulation on ID cards and residence documents has entered into application on 2 August 2021. As of this date, all new ID cards and residence documents issued pursuant to the Free Movement Directive 2004/38/EC have to comply with the new security standards established in the Regulation.

Not sufficiently secure ID cards currently in circulation (for example paper-based ID cards) will have to be replaced by 3 August 2026.

Relatively secure ID cards currently in circulation (for example machine-readable plastic cards) will have to be replaced by new ID Cards following the requirement of the Regulation by 3 August 2031. Relatively secure ID cards of persons aged 70 and above (for example with a machine readable zone) are not affected by the phasing-out periods and will be replaced when they expire.