2024-02-15 08:30:50
Deputies from GERB submitted a project for changes to the law on personal documents, which removes the possibility of issuing permanent identity cards, which are currently issued to all Bulgarian citizens over 58 years of age. According to NSI data, there are nearly 2 million Bulgarians over this age.
The amendments were introduced by the chairman of the internal commission in the National Assembly, Manoil Manov, and by former interior ministers Hristo Terziyski and Mladen Marinov.
The three argue their proposal with the European Union Regulation 2019/1157 and with the recommendation of the ICAO Doc 9303, in which it is stipulated that identity cards should have no more than 10 years of validity “in view of the limited durability of travel documents and the changing nature of its holders over time”.
Currently, the Law on Personal Documents (PLD) stipulates that the identity cards of Bulgarian citizens are fixed-term and permanent. Temporary identity cards are issued to persons from 14 to 18 years of age with a validity period of 4 years and to persons from 18 to 58 years of age with a validity period of 10 years. It is envisaged that persons who have reached the age of 58 will be issued permanent identity cards.
With the changes, it is proposed to drop the possibility of unlimited cards altogether. The rules for ages 14 to 18 remain. Immediately afterwards, however, it is written that from 18 years old and above, ID cards are valid for 10 years.
The MPs propose, however, that persons over 70 years of age may be issued identity cards valid for 30 years. This will only be possible at their request. If there is no such request, then the validity of the identity cards, which are not only an identity document but also a document for traveling abroad, remains for them for 10 years.
The petitioners argue the possibility of a 30-year validity again with the EU regulation, which had a general rule allowing countries to provide for over 70-year-olds to allow more than 10 years of validity, leaving each country to decide exactly how much to choose In their reasons, the deputies indicate that if a longer deadline is accepted, Bulgaria will have to notify the border authorities of all EU countries. They also explicitly note that citizens over 70 will have to be informed that they are entitled to cards with a validity of 30 years, but that after the expiry of 10 years “they may have difficulties crossing the border”.
It is not clear from the submitted bill whether Bulgarian citizens, who now have permanent identity cards, will have to change them immediately or after 10 years from their issuance, or whether the change will only be for those who turn 58 after the law comes into force.
On the same day and almost at the same time, a project for changes in the same ZLD was also submitted by MPs from PP-DB. Among its signatories are Bozhidar Bojanov, Nadezhda Yordanova, Ivaylo Mirchev, Daniel Laurer, Antoineta Tsoneva.
With the amendments, they propose that the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not store the fingerprints of the persons that they have given when applying for Bulgarian personal documents, unless the persons give express consent in the application. They point out that European regulations do not justify having biometric databases at national level. Under these regulations, fingerprints are a special category of personal data. And if the photos can be stored, this does not apply to the fingerprints, argue the importers.
In general, their thesis is that fingerprints collected for personal documents cannot be used for anything other than border control. Now they are collected in a centralized unit and this creates risks of being used for something else. An example is also given of how the fingerprints of over 1 million people were leaked from a private company. And if, for example, cracked passwords can be changed, fingerprints are biometric data that are immutable. That is why it is suggested that the Ministry of Interior should not have a central database with them.
MPs from PP-DB also propose two measures to reduce the burden on citizens when requesting personal documents. The first is that if a person has an already issued personal document, he can identify himself with it for the issuance of a subsequent one, and not with a birth certificate, even if the same one has expired. An example of such a situation was the renewal of a passport of a child whose previous passport had expired. The passport is a much more secure proof than the birth certificate, not least because it also has a photo and security elements, argue the MPs.
The second relief was through the suggestion that people should not be asked for copies of birth certificates, because people who did not bring copies were sent to bookstores to do them for a fee, and they did not always work, “Sega” writes.