As always: Ukrainian biometric passports are useless for citizens, but enrich officials

Kyiv, January 12 (PolitNavigator, Oleksandr Semenyuta) – Starting today, Ukrainians can obtain new biometric passports. However, until the EU decides to grant Ukrainians visa-free travel across the Schengen area, the passport remains an expensive and useless toy, Segodnia reports.

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Having a biometric passport is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for visa-free entry into the EU. The European Union is still slow to make a decision, given the difficult situation in Ukraine. This, however, did not stop President Petro Poroshenko from announcing that at the EU summit in May the date for the abolition of Schengen for Ukrainians would be announced (previously, officials even claimed that visas would be abolished in May).

In the meantime, it is pointless to issue a biopassport: old-style international passports will be valid until their expiration date (10 years from the date of issue). A biopass differs from a regular one in that it has an electronic storage medium built into it. Data about the owner of the document and biometric data are stored there - a digitized signature and photo, as well as fingerprints, which will allow him to be identified with 100% accuracy.

The cost of biopassports also raises questions. The authorities promised a foreign passport for a maximum of 377 UAH. There was also a decision of the Supreme Court in 2013: according to it, Ukrainians must pay only a state fee of 170 UAH for an international passport. In fact, the price is set at 518 UAH.

For comparison: citizens of Moldova pay about 7 euros (approximately 129 UAH) for a biometric passport form.

Biopassports were going to be introduced under President Viktor Yanukovych on January 1, 2013, however, they were postponed due to the lack of prospects for introducing a visa-free regime for Ukraine.