The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina has unanimously endorsed a bill on assigning personal identification numbers and sent it to parliament to adopt it in fast-track procedure, the state government said in a press release after it held a closed-door meeting in Sarajevo on Wednesday.
The failure of political stakeholders to agree on how to assign personal identification numbers caused massive protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina in June as the procrastination dealing with this matter made it impossible for newborn babies to be issued documents including passports and health insurance cards.
Protests were triggered off on 6 June when the state parliament failed to adopt the relevant legislation. The rows among political elites in the three constituent peoples obstructed the passage of the law and newborn babies were not able to be assigned 13-digit personal identification numbers and pertaining documents. Consequently, a seriously ill baby was unable to undergo medical treatment abroad. Later this baby died during her medical treatment in Serbia.
The Bosnian government today also prepared legislation facilitating the granting of citizenship to children born abroad with one of their parents being a Bosnian national. The only condition for acquiring Bosnian citizenship in this case is to submit the application before the applicant's 23rd birthday.
Naturalised Bosnians will be, in future, required to stay in Bosnia at least eight years to be granted Bosnian citizenship. The existing legislation now requires 13 years of residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
