With an increase in identity fraud and the emphasis on security, there is a growing and urgent need to efficiently identify humans both locally and remotely on a routine basis. The appearance of biometric identity documents such as passports, visas, national identity cards, drivers' licences and health insurance cards, has triggered a real need for reliable, user-friendly and widely acceptable automated reference mechanisms for checking the identity of an individual. This paper presents European perspective in advancing biometrics development as identified in the COST 2101 Action "Biometrics for Identity Documents and Smart Cards". The main objective of the Action is to investigate novel technologies for unsupervised multi-modal biometric authentication systems using a new generation of biometrics-enabled identity documents and smart cards, while exploring the added-value of these technologies for large-scale applications with respect to the European requirements in relation to storage, transmission and protection of personal data.