On 8 December, the European Commission presented an Action Plan on tackling travel document fraud.
The provision of travel documents is under the full responsibility of the Member States. These documents are given to EU citizens and third-country nationals, used for identification and border crossings. The EU’s role in this is to set EU-wide security standards for travel documents as well as border control requirements. Therefore, the Commission aims to closely cooperate with Member States and EU agencies on this.
Travel document fraud is one of the main security threats in Europe, as it assists terrorist movements, organised crime, human trafficking and migrant smuggling. The European Commission aims to use this action plan as part of a number of measures aiming to secure Europe’s borders.
More information on the Action Plan is available here.