Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/220 of 1 February 2023 laying down and developing the universal message format (UMF) standard pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/817 of the European Parliament and of the Council
Data as of 2026-07-04 · Compiled from an official source version. Later amendments or repeals may not be reflected; the official text prevails. · Read the official text ↗
Definition
For the purposes of this Decision, (1) ‘information system’ means a central or national data processing systems and any of the following interoperability components: the European search portal (ESP), the common identity repository (CIR) and the multiple-identity detector (MID).
Universal Message Format (UMF) standard
1. The universal message format (UMF) standard for cross-border information exchange between authorities or organisations in the field of Justice and Home Affairs shall be as set out in Annex I. 2. The UMF standard shall be used, if appropriate, in the development by the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) or by any other Union agency for new information exchange models and information systems in the area of Justice and Home Affairs. 3. The elements set out in Annex II, derived from the universal message format (UMF) standard, shall be used in the development of the Entry/Exit System (EES), the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), and the following interoperability components: the ESP, the CIR and the MID.
Use of UMF
1. The UMF standard may be used for information exchange between information systems, authorities or organisations in the field of Justice and Home Affairs. 2. The UMF standard shall be used to describe information exchanged between information systems in the field of Justice and Home Affairs without prejudice to the specific provisions related to the interoperability components laid down in Articles 4 and 5. 3. The UMF standard shall not be mandatory for the description of data elements stored in an information system or database.
Use of the UMF standard for the development of the ESP
The UMF standard shall be used to describe and label the identity, travel document and biometric data queried and received via the ESP.
Use of the UMF standard for the development of the CIR and the MID
The UMF standard shall be used to describe and label the identity, travel document and biometric data used for the information exchanged with the CIR and the MID referred to in Articles 20 and 22 of Regulation (EU) 2019/817.
Entry into force
This Decision shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
ANNEX I The Universal Message Format (UMF) standard consists of the following documents delivered as a result of the UMF Project financed by the European Commission. (1) ‘UMF3.1_BusinessDescription.’, (2) ‘UMF XML Schema Overview 3.1’, (3) ‘UMF V3.1 Schema&TestSamples’. These documents are available on the https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/af638ba5-eb84-4476-87fb-9a76ad669d2e. This website is managed by the UMF Secretariat hosted within Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission. All updates of these documents are published on the same site.
ANNEX II UMF taxonomy table of identity and travel document data elements in EES, VIS, ETIAS, ECRIS -TCN and interoperability components. Label of data elements UMF mapping Description FamilyName PersonIdentity.PersonCoreName.FamilyName The surname or last name of a person. Family name is usually shared by members of a family. It contains all the parts of the family name including prefixes. FamilyNameAtBirth PersonIdentity.PersonCoreName.BirthName Surname, family name or last name of a person at birth PreviousFamilyName a1) PersonIdentity.OtherName.Type LUT-value: PreviousName a2) PersonIdentity.OtherName.Description Surname, family name or last name used in the past and legitimately changed. PreviousFirstNames a1) PersonIdentity.OtherName.Type LUT-value: PreviousName a2) PersonIdentity.OtherName.Description Previous names, e.g. when first names were legitimately changed. OtherName a1) PersonIdentity.OtherName.Type LUT-value: NotAssignableName a2) PersonIdentity.OtherName.Description [Available with UMF 3.1] Other name is a formal or unofficial name by which a person is known (alias(es), artistic name(s), usual name(s)). FirstName PersonIdentity.PersonCoreName.FirstName The first name(s) of a person. All first names that are part of a person identity. DateOfBirth PersonIdentity.DateOfBirth The date on which a person was born or was officially deemed to be born. PlaceOfBirth PersonIdentity.PlaceOfBirth City, village or another locality where a person was born or deemed to be born. CountryOfBirth PersonIdentity.CountryOfBirth Country of birth is the country where a person was born or officially deemed to be born Gender PersonIdentity.Gender Gender is the sex of a person FamilyNameOfFather a1) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.Type LUT-value: Father a2) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.FamilyName [Available with UMF 3.1] Surname, last name of the first parent (the father) of a person FirstNameOfFather a1) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.Type LUT-value: Father a2) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.FirstName [Available with UMF 3.1] First name(s) of the first parent (the father) of a person FamilyNameOfMother a1) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.Type LUT-value: Mother a2) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.FamilyName [Available with UMF 3.1] Surname, last name of the second parent (the mother) of a person FirstNameOfMother a1) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.Type LUT-value: Mother a2) PersonIdentity.ParentOrGuardianName.FirstName [Available with UMF 3.1] First name(s) of the second parent (the mother) of a person Nationality PersonIdentity.Nationality.Country Country in which a person holds legal citizenship (or indication of a stateless condition). NationalityAtBirth a1) PersonIdentity.Nationality.Country a2) PersonIdentity.Nationality.StartDate = DateOfBirth Country or countries in which a person held legal citizenship at birth DocumentType Document.DocumentType Type of the document DocumentNumber Document.NumberInformation.Number Alphanumeric number, which has been assigned by the owner, bearer, user, publisher, distributor, issuer or manufacturer of the document. IssuingCountry Document.IssuingAuthority.NationalAffiliation Country of the issuing authority of the document IssuingAuthority Document.IssuingAuthority.Department/Agency.Name The name of the authority that issued the document IssueDate Document.IssueDate Date when the document was issued ValidUntil Document.ValidUntil Date until the document is valid FullName PersonIdentity.PersonCoreName.FullName Full name is a complete name of a person. The attribute full name contains the complete name of a person. In addition to the content of first name, family name and, in some systems, patronymic name, this can carry additional parts of a person’s name such as titles, middle names or suffixes like ‘the third’, ‘III’ or names which are neither a first (given) nor a family name Biometric data elements present in EES and sBMS (shared Biometric Matching Service) Label of data elements Description BiometricType Indication of the biometric modality. NISTFormat The NIST format that was used to exchange the biometric sample. NIST The binary file of the biometric data. MatchingScore Result of the comparison, indicating the degree of similarity between the biometric samples (for fingerprints, the matching score is for the whole fingerprint set from the probe data). The higher the score, the higher the similarity. MatchingInterval This element indicates in which interval the matching score lies below, in-between and above the matching threshold and possible matching threshold. Facial image QualityValue An indication of the quality of the biometric. The biometric quality scores of the facial images are based on an algorithm that follow the ISO/IEC 19794-5:2011 recommendations. NotProvidedReason Code table value indicating a reason why facial image was not provided. Source Code table value indicating the source of the facial image. Fingerprint QualityValue An indication of the quality of the biometric. The biometric quality scores of the fingerprints are based on the NFIQ 2.0 (NIST Fingerprint Image Quality version 2.0). NotProvidedReason Code table value indicating the reason why fingerprints were not provided. FingersPermutation Indicator whether the verification should be performed with fingers permutation or not. HandsPermutation Indicator whether the search should be performed with hands permutation or not. Only applicable for identifications with fingerprints.
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