Dnevni avaz: Bosnia and Herzegovina will be ready to begin issuing biometric passports from June next year, has been said in the interview for "Dnevni avaz" by Sredoje Nović, minister of civil affairs of BiH. That is a key condition which the European Union demands in order to abolish visas for traveling in the Schengen zone for BiH citizens. According to Nović, BiH Institutions remain sturdy when speaking of the plan which has been adopted by the Council of Ministers of BiH and Nović expects that by the end of June, our country will be ready to issue the new passports.
– Biometric passports will not and cannot be issued unless secure conditions at places for issuing personal documents have been created. Meaning, as long as the authorities for internal affairs do not create all the needed conditions to guarantee for passports and other identification documents and that there will not be those misuses such as we had by now. I expect that we will finish all those preparations by middle of the year – Nović says.
In which phase is that process now, and would it be finished on time?
– All tenders have been levied. There are two phases – technical conditions and booklets for passports themselves. Technical conditions which had implemented by the CIPS, in whose competence it is, have been finished. The contracts for technical upgrade needed for the introduction of such passports, have been concluded. All the work performers must finish their work by the end of June. Tender for passport booklets has been finished, but the complaint has been placed and now it is being waited for completion of that procedure and I believe it will be done by the end of the year. If issuing of biometric passports starts from July 1st, not all of them will be changed immediately, but it will all go gradually, like in each country.
How much will a biometric passport cost?
– We will do everything not to make the price deviate from a price of the current passport. If there is a change, it will not be drastic.
European Commission seeks a better safety of issuing personal documents. Does anyone do anything to bring an order into the CIPS system?
– I claim that the main problem is in the authorities of internal affairs, who are competent for issuing all identification documents. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the one who receives the documents and they should be checking the doubts in some received documents. The CIPS is exclusively a technical service for creation of documents. I think some theses here have been used in mala fide way, so everything leads to the CIPS. By now, neither personal identification card has been falsified, but the documents on the basis of which the identification documents are being received, have been falsified.
You want to say that the CIPS is not guilty, but the police?
– The authorities of the internal affairs are, absolutely. That is essential and the CIPS system should not be questioned, but receiving of documents, because many fake documents are being brought from the master offices, certification of citizenship, birth certificates, etc.
According to this, we have a system set by a travesty…
– That is not a travesty. Such system has been established and conceived from the beginning. Be careful, the easiest solution would be if everything was on one authority, but it is the way it has been solved six years ago, so I currently cannot have an impact on it.
What will we then say to Brussels that we did in order make that system improved and safer?
– We have created a good project and a plan one month ago. We have sent it to the authorities of the internal affairs. I have talked to the ministers and sent them this plan, which includes the European standards which must be fulfilled at places where the documents are being issued. If they fulfill this, there is a huge probability that there will be no problems which we have today. We are all ready to remove those disadvantages.
It is about the place where the documents are being issued in the post offices, where the things must be securely standardized. This implies that we solve the things with the master offices as well, that they can be checked electronically. This should be accepted by municipalities, cantons and entities. I expect that it will happen.