The chip in the ID card will be optional. This was said to BNR by the Minister of Electronic Government Bozhidar Bojanov.

"If a person does not want to, they can go and declare, taking their ID card - I do not want you to write anything on my ID card. Even when something is written there, it will only be an anonymous identifier. There will be virtually no personal data on the card itself, which is in centralized registers."

"Skepticism about technology exists. I don't think it's widespread, but we are still obliged to do all possible protection of personal data," Bojanov commented on the Bulgarian National Radio. According to him, potential fears must be dispelled, so the protection of personal data is very important.

"We can't just make a technology and collect whatever data it likes."

"I do not expect many people to give up this option. In any case, the counters will not be closed from tomorrow. There will always be people - sometimes older people, sometimes people who just don't want to. We cannot continue to have everything on the counter. If we currently have 10 employees at the counter, in a few years they can become half, in a few years another half and so as a process to reduce this feeling of bureaucracy," said Bozhidar Bojanov.

The reduction of people at the counter does not mean that they are completely eliminated. The administration will be optimized as functions, he explained.

Regarding the achievements so far in the field of e-government, Bojanov summarized:

"It simply came to our notice then. They have built some systems here and there, they do not work with each other, they have flaws that prevent them from being widely used.

An analysis of the available systems on how they can achieve a great effect with a little upgrade is forthcoming, he added.

In the short term, Minister Bojanov aims to drop certificates.

"We will see which certificates can be dropped almost immediately - for example, marital status or lack of obligations to the central government, to the municipality. At the moment, the citizen is a courier of the administration."

"We want to have electronic identification that is accessible to everyone, without going anywhere - it should be in their pocket: whether in the ID card or in the phone, so that the moment it comes, for example, lockdown or the need to you say things online, you don't have to go first to get an electronic signature or a personal identification number, but you can use them directly.”

The seal is almost nowhere explicitly regulated by law, but it is still required - the so-called customary law, said Bojanov.

"What we want to introduce is a ban and sanctions for requiring a seal. If the administration requires a seal and returns you for not having a seal or for not having the correct shape and color of the seal, the person who did it should be subject to sanctions."

On the topic of cybersecurity, the Minister of e-Government noted that if attractive positions with attractive salaries are listed in the classifier of positions in the administration, people from the private sector will think about where they want to work.

/BNR