Identity Cards - Hidden hand of the EU
WORKERS, JAN 2006 ISSUE
The government is desperate to play down the EU's drive to introduce ID cards. Britain's minister for e-government, Jim Murphy, repeatedly denies that the EU intends to introduce EU ID cards.
But a ministerial declaration, approved unanimously at an EU conference in Manchester in November, set out four targets for European e-government by 2010. Target Number Four is "mutually recognised electronic identifications". It calls on all EU member states to work towards "the mutual recognition of national electronic identities by testing, piloting and implementing suitable technologies and methods". That is, EU ID cards.