# Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on driving licences (Recast) (Text with EEA relevance), Division 2: Physical security of driving licences

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

The threats to the physical security of driving licences are:
production of false cards: creating a new object which bears great resemblance to the document, either by making it from scratch or by copying an original document,
material alteration: changing a property of an original document, e.g. modifying some of the data printed on the document;
The overall security lies in the system in its entirety, consisting of the application process, the transmission of data, the card body material, the printing technique, a minimum set of different security features and the personalisation process.
(a) The material used for driving licences shall be made secure against forgery by using the following techniques (mandatory security features):
card bodies shall be UV dull,
a security background pattern designed to be resistant to counterfeit by scanning, printing or copying, using rainbow printing with multicolour security inks and positive and negative guilloche printing. The pattern shall not be composed of the primary colours (CMYK), shall contain complex pattern designs in a minimum of two special colours and shall include micro lettering,
optical variable elements providing adequate protection against copying and tampering of the photograph,
laser engraving,
in the area of the photograph the security design background and photograph should overlap on at least its border (weakening pattern).
(b) In addition, the material used for driving licences shall be made secure against forgery by using at least three of the following techniques (additional security features):
colour-shifting inks*,
termochromic ink*,
custom holograms*,
variable laser images*,
ultraviolet fluorescent ink, visible and transparent,
iridescent printing,
digital watermark in the background,
infrared or phosphorescent pigments,
tactile characters, symbols or patterns*.
(c) Member States are free to introduce additional security features. As a basis, the techniques indicated with an asterisk are to be preferred as they enable the law enforcement officers to check the validity of the card without any special means.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2006/126/annex/I/division/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-directive-2006-126/annex-I/division-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.