German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries have agreed on a draft law for the new German internal passport. According to Deutsche Welle, Schäuble, who represents the conservative wing of the government, failed to include the requirement for fingerprinting in the bill.
Social Democrats and opposition representatives opposed this measure. 'A biometric identity card will be more expensive than the current model, but Germany will not become safer because of it,' Sebastian Edathy, the SPD's domestic policy expert, told the newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
As a result, Schäuble and SPD representative Zypries reached a compromise: fingerprints will be taken exclusively on a voluntary basis.
It is recalled that in November 2007, a new model of the German passport was introduced. Unlike the internal identity card, the requirement to include fingerprints for this type of document is mandatory.