EU asked to intervene on passport deal

By David Cronin

Date: 31/03/05

A consortium hired to bring Ukraine's passport service up to western European standards has complained to EU leaders about how its contract has been cancelled through a decree by President Viktor Yushchenko.

Comprising US, Swiss and American companies, the consortium - known by its Ukrainian acronym EDAPS - won a €17.5 million bid to issue purportedly forgery-proof passports in June 2004.

But earlier this month Yushchenko scrapped the contract and EDAPS complains that he has never explained why.

The consortium says it is correct that Yushchenko has decided to annul many decisions taken before he came to power as corruption was rife during the rule of his predecessor Leonid Kuchma. But EDAPS fears that Yushchenko did not have sufficient information at his disposal when cancelling its award.

The consortium has contacted the EU delegation taking part in ministerial talks with Ukraine in Kiev this week (30 March) to seek support for the contract's restoration.

Andrii Pervushiy of EDAPS said that the system being devised would have allowed biometric data to be inserted into Ukrainian standards to allow them to meet the requirements set by EU law, as well as those of the International Civil Aviation Authority. It was particularly difficult to understand the cancellation, he added, as much of the technology needed for the upgrade had already been ordered.

A Ukrainian diplomat in Brussels said he was unable to comment on Yushchenko's decision, apart from confirming that the president had not accompanied it with an explanation.

A consortium hired to bring Ukraine's passport service up to western European standards complained to EU leaders about how its contract had been cancelled through a decree by President Viktor Yushchenko. Comprising US and Swiss companies, the consortium - known by its Ukrainian acronym EDAPS - had won a €17.5 million bid to issue purportedly forgery-proof passports in June 2004.