Nigel Harper, 28 May 2009
Every five years the EU adopts a five-year plan for justice and home affairs affecting many areas of EU citizens' civil liberties – policing, immigration and asylum, criminal law, databases and data protection. The Tampere programme (2000-2004) was followed by the Hague programme[pdf] (2005-2009), which included the commitment to bring in biometric passports and ID cards, and a new programme will be adopted in Stockholm in December.
Source: guardian.co.uk
