The EU wants to make traveling even easier - and is counting on further digitization.
Brussels – Not so long ago, the green German ID card was shrunk to the size of a credit card.
Thirteen years later, the next drastic change could be imminent: the EU is currently working on a new law that will digitize all travel documents.
A law is to be drawn up for this by autumn 2023.
A survey is currently being carried out in which the opinion of EU citizens on the project is being asked.
Digital passport: what is planned?
The new plans are part of an EU strategy to make the Schengen area more travel-friendly.
According to the EU Commission, more than 3.5 million people travel across the EU's internal borders every day.
With the end of the corona pandemic, travel will become more attractive again, so that travel flows should continue to increase.
In order to make international border controls faster and more efficient, the EU wants everything to be contactless in the future.
And it should also be possible to issue travel documents online – tiresome visits to the authorities would then be a thing of the past.
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Will passports and ID cards soon be available on mobile phones?
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There are currently six options on which EU citizens can give their opinion until June 28, 2023.
Essentially, the different options are about whether digitization should be mandatory and whether the member states have to enable digital border controls or not.
There is also the question of whether the EU should wait until the introduction of an international standard for digital travel documents, which is still in the works.
That means: the digitization of passports will come one way or another at some point.
Digital border controls: How should that work?
But it is unclear how exactly traveling with digital documents will look like.
The EU proposes that travelers pass through a digital border control before their trip, which is then checked at the actual entry using facial recognition.
This should make it appear to the travelers themselves that they are crossing the EU borders with virtually no border controls.
The EU assures that digital travel documents will only be introduced if security can be guaranteed.
Anyone who wants to give their opinion on the EU project can do so here.
List of rubrics: © Zoonar.com/Imago
