The Interior Ministry is preparing an amendment to the Act on State Citizenship that should help people who lost their Slovak passport after they accepted another country’s citizenship.
“Just now, comments and recommendations of international organisations are being included in the draft amendment,” Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák told the Hospodárske Noviny economic daily on January 22. He added that it should be completed in May.
According to the “softening” amendment, those people who have permanent residence in the country whose citizenship they were granted can ask for Slovak citizenship. Those who still live in Slovakia, however, will lose their Slovak citizenship anyway.
The current law stipulating double citizenship was passed in 2010, during the first government of (also current) Prime Minister Robert Fico as a reaction to Hungary changing its law on this matter. Political analysts opine, however, that the reaction was too strong and touches also on people who have gained Czech citizenship. A group of MPs around Gábor Gál (Most-Híd) filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court (deeming the wording too strict), which was dealt with on January 22. The final verdict should arrive in February.
(Source: Hospodárske Noviny)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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