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The Greek Ministry of Interior has proposed a bill on citizenship of immigrants, which contains some new conditions. The main one is that children of foreign nationals, who were born in Greece, will be entitled to acquire Greek citizenship if they are enrolled in the first grade and attend school in the year when the appropriate statement is submitted. Another requirement stipulates that one of the two parents should have legally resided in Greece for 5 years before the birth of the child.

The bill refers to the so-called "second-generation" immigrants, i.e. Greece-born children of legal immigrants, and it has been published for discussion.

It is significant that the previous law provided for a 5-year legal residence in Greece of both parents and for acquiring citizenship by birth. The Council of State (the Supreme Administrative Court of Greece) considers that requirement insufficient, therefore adding two additional conditions, namely the expiry of six years after the birth of a child in Greece and enrolling him or her in the first grade of primary school having attended kindergarten over the course of one year.

The parent will be able to exercise that right later, the child attending school being the main requirement again. This harmonizes the bill with the decision of the Council of State in the event of a cancellation request, as happened with the Ragousis law on citizenship (named after former Minister of Interior Yiannis Ragousis).

A source from the Ministry of Interior stated, "We want these children to acquire citizenship while they are still children, since public consciousness and therefore national identity form in childhood. In this sense, these children are our children - they go to school with our children, play with them, they often do not speak any language other than Greek, they do not know, and do not want to go to, the home country of their parents."

The bill entitled "Amendment of the Greek citizenship acquiring code and other provisions" also contains provisions that relate to citizenship acquisition not only by Greece-born children of immigrants but also by those who hold a Greek baccalaureate or higher educational degree, as well as by children who have attended a Greek school for 9 years (which is the compulsory education period under Greece's Constitution). It should be noted that the previous Ragousis law provided for attending a Greek school for six years and today's change actually is dictated by the decision of the Council of State. The bill on citizenship of the former government contained these conditions too.

Finally, this bill also includes the notorious Article 19 that the former cabinet withdrew and that provided for the protection of victims of racist violence.

Sources indicate that meetings with the representatives of all political parties were held at the Ministry of Interior before preparing the bill, which is why the leadership of the Ministry expects a large majority to support the bill in parliament.

The public discussion of the bill will continue until 25 May.