The interior ministry on Tuesday said it has no intention to reverse a recent change where new ID cards will no longer feature the names of the bearer’s parents.

For any biometric IDs issued as of July, the fields for the names of the parents have been removed.

According to Politis, the decision was taken by Civil Registry, and on the advice of the Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

The change was instituted without prior notification to the public.

Interior ministry sources said also that the change is reflected in the amended contract between the government and the private company printing the cards.

There are currently no plans to revert to the old format, the same sources said, asked about reactions by some quarters.

They said the policy is in line with EU Regulation 2025/1208 which sets out uniform standards for ID cards across the bloc.

The regulation does not expressly prohibit the printing of the parents’ names, leaving it up to individual EU member-states.

The decision to remove this field from the IDs was therefore Cyprus’ choice.

Explaining the reasoning, the sources said that displaying an ID card is done to verify the identity of the holder alone, not their parents. Moreover, any information regarding the parents will be maintained on other relevant documents – like the birth certificate.

The change was introduced for personal data privacy reasons. As an example, an interior ministry source cited the case of persons with father unknown. In these cases, under the old system, which did feature the fields for the parents’ names, this had to be left blank – revealing personal information about the holder.

The ministry said also that, from research they conducted, ID cards in most EU states do not have fields for the parents’ names.

But the change drew a strong reaction from Elam, which complained about “an unacceptable attempt to undermine the sacred institution of the family”.

Party spokesman Marios Pelekanos asked rhetorically whether the next step will be to introduce the terms ‘Parent 1’ and ‘Parent 2’.

And he tied the change to ID cards to “the onslaught of the woke agenda”.

Elam demanded the immediate reinstatement of the old format, calling on the minister to intervene personally.

It even warned of taking “dynamic measures” if its demands go unheeded.

By law, possessing an ID card is mandatory for any citizen of Cyprus who has reached the age of 12.

The Cyprus Mail heard of at least one person who had a new card issued in July and still featured the parents’ names.

An interior ministry official said the card must have been issued during the narrow transition phase.