Government approves plan to introduce electronic passports The Cabinet of Ministers on Sept.

11 approved a plan to introduce biometric pass ports.The biometric identification for Ukrainian citizens is one of the key point s of the EU visa liberalization. In order to implement the plan, an integrated demographic register database will be established in Ukraine. The government has allocated 793.3 million UAH for t he project through 2015. Verkhovna Rada deputies on December 6, 2012 passed the law "On integrated state demographic register and documents that prove the citizenship of Ukraine, the pe rsonal identity or a special status" was passed.The measure provides for biometri c plastic cards instead of paper passports currently in use. The new model of foreign passport will be more conservative and will look like a little book. It will also integrate a new generation of contactless chip with p ersonal information. According to the Ukrainian law and international standards, the biometric passpo rt will contain two types of data - basic and advanced.The basic data will includ e a detailed information about the person a digitized face photograph, digitized signature, last name, first name, date of birth. The advanced data is the perso n's fingerprints. Civil passports will be issued at birth. The waiting time remains the same -up to 30 days.The internal passport, which used to be not limited in time, will be iss ued for 10 years. The so-called "old" passport will be replaced with a new biome tric one on a voluntary basis. According to preliminary estimates, the new passp ort will cost 350 USD. According to the EU visa liberalization program, Ukrainia ns will be able to go abroad only with a biometric passport. The idea of creating biometric documents first appeared in the United States. US citizens have been issued only biometric passports with an integrated chip sinc e 2007. The EU countries have also introduced biometric passports over recent ye ars.Russia and Ukraine followed their example. The new passports will facilitate border crossing for citizens of Ukraine travel ing abroad, strengthen the national security system (illegal immigration) and wi ll help develop an information society. Offset: Biometric identification for citizens of Ukraine will cost 793 million U AH