Under the proposal, presented by Interior Minister Ivan Langer, the Interior Ministry is to become the national certification and verification office, as ordered by EU regulations to the Czech Republic, Hrbek said. "The submitted proposal should take effect before April 1, 2009, when biometric data on fingerprints will be introduced to the travel documents issued by the Czech Republic," the report said. The Interior Ministry wants to submit the final wording of the bill by the end of July.
If passed, the Ministry would have another two new powers. First, it would issue certificates checking the biometric data in the documents for the producers of travel documents. Second, it would allow access to the sensitive information Germany bans far-right groups ...
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New bill to make dual nationality possible for former Czech citizens ... to other offices and institutions. Taking into account the new power relating to the biometrics, the Interior Ministry has decided to draft quite a new law. As it believes that specific identification data will also appear in other documents than passports, it wants to avoid the necessity to amend other legislation. "We are aware that the bill is drafted in a general manner, but this is caused by the fact that specific technicalities are only being polished at the EU level," the Interior Ministry officials said. At first, the fingerprints were to appear in the passports from this April, but the deadline was moved by a year by the government. Cabinet members said the problems were caused by the EU that has not yet decided what biometric elements and data should be in the documents. The EU ordered the introduction of fingerprints in travel documents by a directive from 2004. Subsequently, the Czech Republic passed the relevant law. The new passports that include information readable by a machine and a computer chip with biometric data have been issued by local authorities since September 1, 2006. However, the chip only includes a digital photo. The regulations only refer to the newly issued passports. Old passports will be valid for the time written on them.
(Ceske Noviny)
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