Red colored EU passports worry Lithuanian politicians

January 4, 2006

The old European Union countries have asked the US to put back its biometric passport deadline for another year, as biometric data inclusion issues still needed to be resolved.

In the meantime, the new eastern EU countries are more preoccupied with less sophisticated issues relating to passports, namely the uniform colour required for all EU states.

In former USSR states such as the Baltic state of Lithuania this new Burgundy-colored document may remind many of the Soviet-era dark red passports.

Mr P. Austrevicius, former Chief Negotiator of the Lithuania - EU Entrance Team said to Lithuania's newspaper Atgimimas: “If we decline Europe's unifying stuff, such as a common passport, how else can we join Europe? I don't see any association with the Soviet Union”

But according to journalist Indrė Makaraitytė, an unnamed diplomat stated: “We already have had a red colored passport and it can be a sensitive case in our society. We should take this into account".