Belgium is a year ahead of France in implementing its plan. New national ID cards have already been distributed to 11 communities in Belgium to about 360,000 residents.

Using a Java-based smart card technology with a contact interface as its prototype, the Belgian national ID card "will be tested over the next six months," Luc Vanneste, director general of the federal public service in Belgium's Ministry of Interior, said during an event staged on a boat in the middle of the Seine River. After an evaluation period, Brussels will decide how to expand the program. The goal is to distribute ID cards nationwide within three to five years, Vanneste added.

Infineon Technologies AG will supply the smart card chip embedded that integrates an encryption engine and 32 Kbytes of memory. So far, Schlumberger is the sole supplier of the new Belgian national IDs, Vanneste said.

France will test its electronic national ID cards in several regions beginning in 2004, with an objective to roll out the project in 2005, according to Francois Darcy, founding director of the French Interior Ministry's national ID card project, called "Titre."

French bureaucrats have yet to agree on several key technical specifications. For example, no decision has been made about whether to use a contact or contactless card for the new electronic ID. Nor has France determined how much memory should be embedded on the chip. The government expects to settle those issues before the end of the year, said Gerard Bonningue, project manager at the French Interior Ministry.

Both countries regard their national ID card projects as separate from next-generation electronic passports currently being discussed within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a U.N. agency that sets international standards and regulations for air transport and services.

ICAO's technical subcommittee recently proposed the use of contactless chips embedded in passport, with the chip storing the document holder's folder.

Both Belgian and French government officials are hoping their ID card platforms will be flexible, extensible and open so as to accommodate future international requirements.

One thing is clear, though. Both governments said they are committed to adopting electronic IDs. "Once we begin the process of making a transition to digital technologies, we know we can't come back to the old system," said Belgium's Vanneste.

By: DocMemory
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