By EUDO-CITIZENSHIP expert Andrea Baršová. 

On 11 June 2013 the Czech Chamber of Deputies cast a final vote on the new citizenship law. By this vote the Chamber outvoted the Senate amendments[1] and enacted the bill as approved by the Chamber on 27 March 2013.[2] Out of 175 deputies only 6 supported the Senate amendments whereas 94 voted against them. An absolute majority, that is 101 votes in favour, was requested to enact the bill as approved by the Chamber. Out of 178 deputies, 120 supported the Chamber version while only 13 voted against it. The law will enter into force on 1 January 2014, after it has been signed by the President.

The most debated amendment proposed by the Senate in May concerned Section 26 of the bill which contains an exemption from judicial review for cases in which a naturalisation application was rejected on security grounds. Senators proposed to retain judicial review also in these cases and to introduce special procedures so that classified information is protected. Other changes proposed by the Senate concerned inter alia the deletion of general exemption from the Czech language and civic knowledge tests for certain categories of applicants for naturalisation and the competencies of magistrates of major cities, including Brno, Ostrava and Plzeň, in naturalisation procedures.[3]

Since the 1993 Constitution forbids the adoption of further amendments[4] by the Lower Chamber, it had to chose between one of two options: either adopting the Senate amendments as a whole, or retaining the version which had already been approved by the chamber with an absolute majority of votes.[5] The Minister of the Interior, who spoke on behalf of the government, rejected the proposed Senate amendments. He said that opening space for judicial review in naturalisation cases rejected on security grounds could lead to granting citizenship to persons who represent a security risk.

The bill enacted by the Parliament brings important changes to the government bill which was submitted to the Parliament in October 2012.[6] The introduction of DNA tests to establish paternity for the purpose of automatic acquisition of citizenship at birth received particular attention. The controversy surrounded cases of children who were born to a Czech father and a foreign mother (Section 7). The government had proposed that unwed mothers who are third country nationals (i. e. excluding citizens of the EU, Switzerland and EEA countries) must submit a DNA test to prove that the father of the child is a Czech citizen. Otherwise, both parents must apply for Czech citizenship for their child (Section 28). The Chamber of Deputies, however, excluded from this provision third country nationals who are permanent residents, for whom a joint declaration on paternity signed by both parents is deemed sufficient, as it is for EU, Swiss and EEA citizens.

The government had proposed to repeal the specific regime established for Slovak citizens in relation to the break-up of Czechoslovakia twenty years ago: The Parliament, however, extended the applicability of the old regulations (Sections 18a, 18b and 18c of Act No 40/1993 Coll.) by one year after the entry into force of the new act (Section 72). In a similar vein, the new provision on facilitated acquisition of Czech citizenship by declaration, which applies to migrant children during a three-year period after they reach 18 years of age (Section 35), can be invoked by immigrants who are over 21 years old  during a period of one year after the law comes into force (Section 73).

A major change introduced by the Parliament concerns the reacquisition of Czech citizenship by former Czech or Czechoslovak citizens. While the government proposed to give the right to reacquire Czech citizenship not only to former Czech or Czechoslovak citizens (with some exceptions), but also to their children and grandchildren, the Parliament limited the right to reacquisition of citizenship to former citizens only (Section 31).[7] In addition, Section 33 grants the right to acquisition of Czech citizenship by declaration to a narrow category of descendents of Czech (Czechoslovak) citizens. These are persons who were born outside the territory of the Czech Republic in the period between 1 October 1949 to 7 May 1969, at least one parent of whom was a Czechoslovak citizen and became (or would have become) a Czech citizen as of 1 January 1969.[8] The declaration must be submitted within one-year after the law comes into force.

In addition, the Parliament adopted new provisions on conditions for naturalisation that were supported by non-governmental organisations. Accordingly, persons with a disability are automatically exempted from language and civic knowledge requirements, provided that their disability makes it difficult for them to take the tests. Applicants’ duty to prove that they are not on welfare without due reasons and the duty to prove their sources of income were limited to the three-year period immediately preceding the application date. In a similar vein, the provision on facilitated naturalisation for persons  who can demonstrate achievements that are  in the special interest of the Czech Republic (the so called “VIP citizenship”, Section 16) was extended to naturalisations on humanitarian grounds and naturalisations which are granted in order to conform with the  Czech Republic’s international obligations.

As of 1 January 2014 the new citizenship law will replace the 1993 citizenship law (Act No. 40/1993 Coll.) adopted as a result of the split of Czechoslovakia into two independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The new law brings wider toleration of dual citizenship, both for immigrants seeking naturalisation and for Czechs citizens applying for naturalisation abroad and facilitates the conditions of ordinary naturalisation for second-generationRs of migrant origins.