In more than 140 locations in BiH new biometric ID cards are expected to be handed out, which would prevent the falsification of these documents and enable digital representation and digital signing of these documents.
Siniša Macan, the Director of the Agency for Identification of Documents, Evidence and Data Exchange (IDDEEA) said that the photograph on the new ID cards will be in color, personal information will be written in Cyrillic and Latin, and at the request of citizens they can enter their blood group and entity citizenship.
“The ID card is made like this in order to remove the possibility of the disappearance of blank documents in a very controlled environment. Electronic identification provides the basis for citizens so they do not have to come at the counters or offices in government institutions. A number of services will be made available through the portal. Whether these services will be solely established depends on the local, cantonal and entity governments, which are legally responsible for offering services to citizens. All of this represents a huge chance to reform the government system in BiH at all levels of government’’, said Macan.
According to him, the ID cards that are currently valid in BiH began to be handed out in 2003, and since then have fulfilled certain security standards. However, in the meantime these standards have changed and improved, and this is why they had to transition to biometric ID cards in order to confirm the continuity and stability of the system documents. They are one of the basic conditions for BiH to remain on the white Schengen list.
“The second reason for the exchange of documents is the attempt that BiH government institutions offer the application of new technologies and more efficient services to citizens in a simple way. The recommendations of the EU stipulates that the citizens of the EU be offered certain services electronically. We hope that local, entity and cantonal authorities recognize this chance and make it possible for citizens to quickly and efficiently request the service and to know exactly in what stage is the request and what official is dealing with it. This ultimately affects the establishment of legal security and efficient mechanisms to combat corruption’’, said Macan in an interview for FENA.
EU experts positively assessed the strategy for the development of ID cards in BiH. The implementation of the strategy, and development and compliance of systems of ID cards with standards in the context of the visa-free regime and enjoying visa-free travel continues to be monitored. This is exactly the reason why security of ID cards has to be improved, because in this way the security of EU countries is taken into account.
The new ID cards in BiH are fully in compliance with the model that was defined by the German Institute for Informatics, which is the basis for a European identity card.
