The new passport will be a document to be certainly proud of – ensured President of the Polish Security Printing Works S.A., Mr Piotr Woyciechowski, following the launching of the “Design a Polish Passport 2018 with Us” campaign.

It is the first time that the public will have an influence on the final design of passports released in Poland. The document will be manufactured to mark the centenary of Poland’s re-established independence. Internet users will decide whether General Józef Haller and the Independence Mound – so-called “Grave of Graves”, will be found on one of the 19 pages.

On Friday, the Minister of the Interior and Administration, Mr Mariusz Błaszczak, inaugurated the “Design a Polish Passport 2018 with Us” campaign. “A centenary of re-establishment of independence is coming. By inviting the Poles to join the designing of a new passport, we would like pay homage to all those who shed their blood for Poland’s freedom” – said the Minister during inauguration of the campaign in front of the Headquarters of the Border Guards, situated in Al. Niepodległości 100 in Warsaw.

Out of 13 graphics that present the most notable independence motifs: people, events, places and symbols, six most popular ones will be selected for placement in the passport. You can vote on the website www.zaprojektujpaszport.gov.pl by 10 September.

The Ministry cooperates in the campaign with the Institute of National Remembrance and Polish Security Printing Works S.A., in which the new passports will be made. The PWPW President, Mr Piotr Woyciechowski, noted that 1.2 to 1.3 million of passports are issued in Poland each year.

“This is the number of people that can have such passport in the next year, as far as schedules permit, but the document will circulate certainly for some time and I think that a large group of the Poles will enjoy it” – Woyciechowski emphasised.

He added that, in addition to its constitutive parts, the document will hold an “element of Polish national community, will be part of the historical, patriotic and civilisational policy of the Polish State”. “It will be really a document to be proud of” – PWPW President emphasised.

Polish Security Printing Works S.A. is a company owned by the State Treasury that has particular importance for the national economy. It makes, among other things: banknotes, security bands, postage stamps, identity cards, passports and documents for foreigners, which are all materials covered by special manufacturing procedures. The Company’s history reaches back to 1919 when, two months after re-establishment of Poland’s independence, a decision was made to open State Graphical Works.

Currently, it is one of the most technologically advanced companies in the security printing industry in Europe, enlisted by the European Central Bank as an entity authorised to print euro banknotes.