VWP - UPDATE ON 10/26/05 DEADLINE - SPAIN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 000652

SIPDIS

For CA/VO/F/P

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CVIS CMGT PREL SP
SUBJECT: VWP - UPDATE ON 10/26/05 DEADLINE - SPAIN

REF: A) STATE 023029; B) STATE 9752


1. Consul General contacted Director General for
Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
the Commissario for Documentary Services to transmit
information in Ref A and to request an update on the
information requested:


2. Name of the Project Manager for Spain

Jos Santiago Snchez Aparicio,
Chief of Spanish Document Unit of the Spanish National
Police SNP (Comisario Jefe de la Unidad de
Documentacin de Espaoles)

His two principal team members are:
Jose Luis Diaz Aguado, who handles the technical
security parameters.
Javier Marquina, who is an engineer at the National
Mint.


3. Timeline for Pilot Testing

There is no specific timeline at this time. The EU has
has
just established the common parameters and provided
each EU country with sixteen months to implement the EU
biometric parameters. The SNP expect to have a pilot
project running the first quarter of 2006, but they
cannot be more specific at this time. They have linked
the biometric passport with an updated National
Identity Card (E-DNI),which will include a chip with
biometric data. CG has seen a prototype "smart card" E-
DNI that will be the size of a credit card with a chip
holding biometric data. The E-DNI is expected to go
into production about the same time and will be used as
the basis for the printing and production of the
biometric passport.


4. Anticipated Date for Full Production
Assuming the pilot testing goes forward successfully,
they anticipate going into full production of biometric
passports in the second quarter of 2006.


5. Status of Procurement Efforts and/or Legislative
Changes

SNP has been investigating the sources for equipment,
but they do not have any procurement orders yet. The
National Mint currently prints the passport books, DNI
and other security documents and materials (credit
cards, lottery tickets, currency, etc). SNP has
requested a prototype passport book from the German
Company that provides the Spanish Passport Printers.
They anticipate receiving the prototype from this
company by March of this year. They are already aware
of the need to make certain modifications, but clearly
some of these details will need to be worked out during
testing.

They do not need any legislative action. One year ago,
a law was passed to cover the MRP and that legislation
included provisions for the biometric passport. Funds
were allocated for the project at that time as part of
the legislative and budgetary process.


6. Any Particular Problems that might be anticipated
in Rolling out the Program

They primarily see technical problems. For example, EU
specifications are more stringent that the ICAO
specifications, and the Spanish are moving to meet the
more stringent EU criteria. They intend to include
fingerprint biometrics in the Spanish documents, so
their research and development efforts are including
not only facial recognition, but also fingerprint
biometric identifiers. Since the EU has only recently
determined the EU standards, the Spanish are still in
the process of evaluating and adapting these common EU
standards and goals.

Spanish passport production is handled through
decentralized production facilities. Passports are
personalized in over 100 Police Stations (SNP) in every
province in the country and at several airports.
Domestic production is estimated at approximately 1
million passports annually. The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs is responsible for preparing approximately
200,000 passports annually for expatriate Spanish
citizens. MFA is initiating a new procedure for
centralizing the production of overseas passports at a
facility in Madrid under MFA, following the US model of
electronic transfer of data and courier return of
passports. They anticipate beginning the pilot on
March 1, 2005 with data transfer from three European
embassies. This decentralized system will require
that the production and procurement be affordable and
suitable for this type of production model. They are
examining the security issues and the costs involved in
the decentralized production and factoring those issues
into their planning and development.

Manzanares