Swiss voters approve biometric passports
(GENEVA) - Swiss voters Sunday narrowly approved a referendum requiring biometric passports to comply with the accords of Europe's borderless Schengen zone which Switzerland joined in December.
Official results showed that 50.14 percent of votes cast were in favour of the referendum, just 5,504 more votes than those opposed to the biometric passports.
While Switzerland is not a member of the European Union, it has joined the now 25-nation Schengen zone which eliminates border identity controls for travel among the member states on the European continent.
The Schengen accords however call for member states to institute biometric passports, which besides a photograph include the passport holder's fingerprints as well as other security elements aimed to prevent counterfeiting.
Swiss leftist parties called for a referendum because they opposed a clause in the biometric passport law that would add the passport details to a central general file, which is not required by Schengen.
For the left, this law would leave the door open to the possible abuse of personal data and could lead to a "Big Brother" state.
But those in favour had argued that biometric passports, required by more and more countries including the United States, would give travellers better security guarantees.
Switzerland has until March 1, 2010, to institute the biometric passport.
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