The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spent HUF 165 million of EU funds on the development of the consular customer service in order to improve the efficiency of administration and to expand the range of services available for clients.
The Ministry modernised and simplified procedures of the consular customer service and expanded its range of services from the funds obtained through the New Széchenyi Plan. Hundreds of thousands of people have applied for Hungarian citizenship in recent years and the number of Hungarian citizens living abroad has also increased, the Ministry communicated.
According to the Ministry, the introduction of a modern, electronic administration was important in order to increase efficiency and improve customer service. An application supporting the online submission of passports and the administration of official translations was created. With the help of this application, managing tasks will be easier for both clients and administrators. The flexibility of the system will allow to further extend the scope of those issues that can be administered electronically.
Within the project the IT equipment necessary for the consular e-services was also partially upgraded. The Ministry acquired the necessary servers for providing the new services, while the missions in the Schengen Member States received document readers, biometric equipment, a number of new work stations and other IT tools.