Biometric passport

Türkiye has started printing its own biometric passports as of Aug. 29, the country's interior minister said at a press conference held at the site where the first "fully Turkish" passport was printed.

Süleyman Soylu gathered with journalists late on Aug. 29 at the General Directorate of Civil Registration and Nationality, an affiliate of his ministry, in the capital Ankara.

An Albanian biometric passport. Photo courtesy: Bevis Fusha / Safran

After first changing the law on private-public partnerships (PPP) by adding the citizenship programmes to lists in which the law can be used, the Albanian government is now mulling hiring private firms to promote this scheme to foreigners.

Ljubljana – Slovenia will roll out biometric identity cards in line with legislation passed by the National Assembly on Wednesday that implements an EU requirement that all member states should start issuing biometric identity cards by August 2021.

More than 256,000 Romanians had voted abroad in the general election until Sunday as of 21:00 hrs, with 21,329 of these votes being cast by mail, the Permanent Electoral Authority announced on its website. In Spain, the country with one of the largest Romanian communities abroad, 140 polling stations were organized, in which more than 32,000 people cast their ballots.

The second day of voting abroad is running in smooth conditions, at 17:00 hrs, Eastern European Time, polling stations organized in the west of the United States (Los Angeles, Anaheim, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Altos, Las Vegas, Portland and Seattle) and Canada (Vancouver) being open, shows a release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) sent to AGERPRES.

Over 200,000 Romanians abroad have cast their ballots on Sunday, until 16:40 hrs, for their representatives in the new Legislative. According to the website of the Permanent Electoral Authority, 21,329 of these votes were expressed by mail.

Voting in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies elections of December 5 and 6, 2020, began on Friday at 8 pm, Romania's time, once with the opening of the polling station in Auckland, New Zealand, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), in a press release.

Electioneering campaign for the second round of the presidential election started on Friday, at 12:00hrs am, to end will end on Saturday, November 23, at 07:00hrs.

Bulgarian citizens planning to travel to the UK in 2020 must have and carry a valid international passport with biometric data, the Foreign Ministry recommends.

In 2017, 825,447 people acquired citizenship of an EU member state, according to Eurostat data published today.

The countries that issued the most passports last year were Italy (18% of all), Great Britain (15%), Germany and France (14%), Sweden and Spain (8%).