E-ID Cards in a Digital Europe

If new databases such as Eurodac and VIS extend surveillance at the EU level, e-ID cards function as their national counterparts. Although there are EU-wide projects such as STORK that are aimed to harmonize the e-ID systems within the EU, each member state is responsible for the development (or non-development) of its own e-ID system. In terms of extending digital surveillance to everywhere within the EU, e-borders and e-ID cards complement each other in various ways (see Lyon 2005). Another similarity can also be found in the rationalities behind the establishment of these systems (e.g. immigration control, e-government, anti-terrorism) (see Lyon & Bennett 2008) and the heavy involvement of European private security industry in the development of these systems (see Bigo & Jeandesboz 2010, Topak 2010). According to the results of a EU-funded project, as of October 2009, out of 32 surveyed states (27 Member States, 3 EEA Countries and 2 Candidates) 13 states actively issue e-ID cards, 5 of these states also integrate biometrics (i.e. fingerprint) into their cards and 12 countries have e-ID plans for the near future (IDABC 2009). In this paper, the reasons, justifications and consequences of establishing e-ID systems in the EU will be discussed. Particular emphasis will be placed on analyzing the intersecting points between e-borders and e-IDs in constituting the EU as a technological zone of inclusion and exclusion and the consequences of these developments on the management of different groups: EU citizens, visitors, undocumented immigrants, students, refugees and so on.