By: UKOM
At its 102nd meeting, the Government adopted an amendment to the Ordinance determining the conditions of entry into the Republic of Slovenia and the Decision on the use of Civil Protection personnel for the care of patients in health or social care institutions. It also adopted the proposal of the Act amending the Act amending the Identity Card Act and took note of a proposal to introduce the photograph capture for the issue of an identity document by the competent authority.
According to the amendment to the Ordinance determining the conditions of entry into the Republic of Slovenia ordinance to contain and control the COVID-19 infectious disease, the exemption for children to enter Slovenia without quarantine is reduced from 15 to 12 years. The Ordinance enters into force on Monday, 15 November 2021.
In order to effectively cope with the upward trend in COVID-19 infection and given the excessive workload of staff in health and social care institutions, there is a need to use the staff of the Civil Protection of the Republic of Slovenia, i.e. volunteers from non-governmental organisations working in the system of protection, rescue and assistance (Red Cross, firefighters, etc.) and with the appropriate skills for paramedics (at least a 50-hour course), for the needs of providing assistance in patient care in health or social care institutions. The Decision follows the principle of progressive deployment of human resources from the protection, rescue and assistance system to provide assistance to the healthcare sector and, depending on need, to social care institutions in patient care, thereby preventing the collapse of the healthcare system and aiming to maintain patient care at the national level.
The act proposal sets a later date for the entry into force of the Act amending the Identity Card Act, which has entered into force on 3 April 2021 and would have started to apply nine months after its enforcement or as of 3 January 2022. Now, 28 March 2022 has been proposed as a new date for the provisions of the Act Amending the Identity Card Act to start to apply, which will provide the legal basis for the issue of biometric identity cards. New biometric identity cards will also store means of electronic identification and qualified digital certificate for electronic signature.
The Government also took note of the proposal to introduce photograph capture for the issue of an identity document by the competent authority. The Republic of Slovenia is obliged to ensure the maximum security and reliability of its officially issued identification documents, personal identity documents and travel documents. This means that solutions should be sought that would prevent the abuse of photographs when an application for identity document is filed. Abuses should not only be identified and issued documents annulled, but rather systemic solutions should be worked out to entirely prevent any abuse. To prevent such abuses, the capture of photographs directly at the authorities competent for the issue of identification documents has been proposed. This would also reduce costs and administrative burden that people incur with when obtaining photographs.
