Božinović: After e-Requests for Driver’s License, the Ministry of the Interior is Working on e-Driving Permit and e-Passport

The introduction of a new service allowing citizens to request the issuance of a driver’s license from home starting Monday should at least reduce the crowds in front of counters in that regard, said Interior Minister Davor Božinović on Wednesday, adding that they are already working on an electronic driving permit, and they also plan to introduce an e-passport.

– There is no delay here, the process has started, we live in the 21st century, and Croatia will certainly follow the trends, said Božinović at a press conference at the Police Directorate, where he presented the new service in the e-Citizen system alongside Minister of Administration Lovro Kuščević.

>>>MUP: e-Citizens can submit requests for driver’s licenses electronically

He stated that with the first project, the submission of an electronic request for the issuance of a driver’s license, which was submitted by 13 citizens in two days, a common goal of the police, the Ministry of the Interior, and citizens is being achieved to alleviate the crowds in front of counters at police stations and administrations. Furthermore, the minister added, new steps in the modernization process are generally transforming the relationship between institutions and citizens.

Minister of Administration Lovro Kuščević stated that one of the fundamental policies of the Government, when discussing the civil service system, is the digitalization of public administration.

– We are witnessing that citizens, entrepreneurs, and craftsmen visit numerous counters daily to obtain documents or confirmations necessary for everyday life or business, said Kuščević. He added that to reduce the burden on counters, the Government is intensively implementing the digitalization project of public administration through the e-Citizen system, which today offers 41 types of documents that citizens can obtain on their computers.

The goal, announced Kuščević, is to increase these functionalities year by year to reach a three-digit number and enable citizens to obtain these documents “from home,” while the ultimate goal is to introduce the entire state administration and public administration systems into the “cloud” so that citizens do not even need to print these documents at home, but rather officials would pull them from the system themselves.

Kuščević announced that by the end of the year, they will launch the e-Newborn system, where registration for a child can be done in the birth registry and citizenship book, as well as registration of residence and health insurance, while next year they will present the e-Business project aimed at entrepreneurs and craftsmen.

The introduction of the e-Fees system is also planned, which will allow all fees to be paid electronically, instead of scanning and sending payment slips.

The Minister of Administration says they are trying to encourage as many state bodies and local government units to participate in this project. Today, they have just under 500,000 users of the e-Citizen system, and their goal is for citizens to utilize the benefits of this system to the greatest extent possible.

>>>Certificates of no criminal record available in the e-Citizen system from Monday

Interior Minister Božinović stated that by using the e-Citizen system, crowds will be alleviated and numerous hours that citizens spend waiting for document issuance will be freed up. For the issuance of a driver’s license alone, the average wait time at police stations is up to 30 minutes, and at police administrations up to one hour, with 250,000 requests submitted annually. Božinović says that as a result, employees at the counters will not lose their jobs, but will receive work that is more suitable for them.

The request for the issuance of a permit is submitted in 12 steps, and the homepage is the central state portal. To use the e-Citizen service, users must register in the system and must have an electronic ID card with signature certificates.