By EUDO citizenship expert Andrea Baršová
On 16 January 2013, the Constitutional Law Committee of the Czech Chamber of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Czech Parliament) will discuss the draft citizenship bill. The bill, introduced by the government to the Parliament in October 2012, has been under preparation for almost a decade. If approved, the bill will replace completely the existing Czech citizenship legislation.
On 4 December 2012, the bill passed through the first reading in the House of Deputies. The law thus will be further discussed, first in two committees, the Constitutional Law Committee mentioned above and the Security Committee and thereafter in the plenary. If approved, the bill will be sent to the Senate. The Minister of the Interior Jan Kubice, who introduced the bill, underlined major changes in relation to the legislation in force. The bill would make it easier for former Czechoslovak (or Czech) citizens as well as the EU, Swiss and EEA citizens to acquire Czech citizenship. Direct descendants of former citizens would acquire Czech citizenship by declaration. As regards EU citizens, naturalisation is necessary, but EU citizens could acquire Czech citizenship after a shorter period of residency than third country nationals. The new citizenship law would terminate the special regime related to the break-up of Czechoslovakia 20 years ago and allow for dual or multiple citizenship. The bill would also open the possibility for renewing the procedure if the applicant for citizenship had concealed important information. Judicial review in naturalisation cases would be excluded if the reason for denial of citizenship is based on information by the police or intelligence services. As the minister explained, the reason for this provision is to protect classified information. The law will also allow the authorities to investigate whether a joint declaration by parents on fatherhood of a child in the absence of real family links is not made for the purpose of obtaining Czech citizenship.
Parliamentary rapporteur Jeroným Tejc, who is the head of the club of the major opposition Social Democratic Party, said that the draft law would not bring by itself principal and important changes. Yet it is much more detailed than the legislation in force. The likely reason is an attempt by the Ministry to transpose the jurisprudence of the Supreme Administrative Court into the law, said the rapporteur. He also mentioned critical comments that he had received from some non-governmental organisations. According to these opinions the bill would dramatically tighten conditions for naturalisation. The non-governmental organisation also criticise the non-acceptable worsening of the situation of some children from mixed families, where the father is a Czech national and the mother is a foreigner. The rapporteur also expressed his personal view that the law on citizenship should not be liberalised in any significant manner, adding that he thinks that the majority of the assembly shares his opinion. He concluded his speech by proposing that the draft be discussed by both the Constitutional Law Committee and the Security Committee.
Two other MPs made use of the opportunity to express their opinion in the first reading. Antonín Seďa (Social Democratic Party) highlighted three critical points. He said that he was in favour of tightening naturalisation conditions, but only if the procedures are transparent and judicial review remains possible. Second, he expressed his disagreement with the proposed DNA tests, saying that they constitute a disadvantage for children born out of wedlock and a discrimination of fathers. Third, he was also critical of the termination of the provisions related to the break-up of the Czechoslovak federation, arguing that a number of cases had still not been solved.
MP Vít Bárta, representing a small centrist opposition party “Public Affairs” (Věci veřejné), indicated that he would propose to extend naturalisation provisions in Section 16 (facilitated naturalisation in cases of substantial contribution by the applicant to the Czech Republic) to include the grant of citizenship based on economic interests of the state.
As the first reading shows, the dividing line in parliamentary debates will not necessarily run between the government and the opposition. For quite a long time, citizenship issues had almost disappeared from mainstream political debates. The need for a reform of the citizenship legislation was rather an agenda of human rights advocates and partly of expatriate communities abroad.
The non-governmental organisation Counselling Centre for Citizenship, Civic and Human Rights, which has been involved in citizenship issues for a long time, is planning a round table to discuss the bill on 10 January 2013 starting at 10 a.m. The event will take place at the European House in Prague.
For more information on the content of the bill see a previous news item.