Bulgaria would be ready to introduce its much-delayed biometric passports in 10 months, Interior Minister Michail Mikov was quoted as saying by Bulgarian daily Sega on June 29. Mikov made his statements in reply to questions during a work-visit to France, Sega said.

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told The Sofia Echo on June 30 that she could not comment on Mikov's statement and no further details were available.

Bulgaria's deadline for the introduction of biometric passports was January 1 2007, the day on which it joined the European Union.

In March 2008, then Interior Minister Roument Petkov announced that six companies had been short-listed in a public procurement procedure for the production of the passports. The six included two French companies, Sagem Defence Securite and Gemaldo. The other four companies that were short-listed were Siemens Bulgaria, Hungarian Allami Nyomda Nyrt, German Bundesdruckerei Gmbh, and Greece's Printec.

At the time of the announcement, Petkov said he expected the contracts for the production to be signed in late May 2008, with passports becoming available by year-end. Instead, only two weeks later the entire procedure was cancelled by the ministry, citing administrative and legal irregularities in the applicants' documentation.

Siemens Bulgaria appealed the decision, but a court ruling in June sided with the ministry, saying that the part of the documentation from all candidates, including Siemens Bulgaria, did not comply with the procurement requirements. Siemens Bulgaria announced it would not appeal the court's decision and was ready to participate in the next procurement for the production of the passports, Sega said.

A ministry spokesperson told The Sofia Echo that no dates for a new procedure had been announced yet.