Brussels, 20/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The diplomatic and consular services of all EU member states must give any EU citizen seeking help abroad the same protection that they give their own nationals, according to a report adopted on Wednesday 19 September by members of the European Parliament's committee on civil liberties. The committee states that any EU citizen in difficulty abroad, for example after suffering an accident, violence or robbery, or caught up in a crisis situation, should be free to request assistance from the embassy or consulate of any other EU member state or, where appropriate, from the EU delegation, if their own country is not represented.
In March 2011, Commissioner Viviane Reding suggested that the consular protection of Europeans be strengthened, coinciding with the outbreak of the war in Libya and shortly after Fukushima. The Commission had already put forward a proposal for a directive in December. In 2011, various crises affected nearly 150,000 citizens of the Union in Libya and Egypt, after the democratic uprisings of spring 2011 and in Japan further to the earthquake and tsunami there. In 2009, the consular services of member states had provided consular protection in 300,000 cases. Some 5,120,000 EU citizens travel each year to third countries in which their member state or origin is not represented, and 1,740,000 EU citizens live in those countries.
According to the text adopted on Wednesday, EU delegations in third countries (managed by the European External Action Service) would have to shoulder the responsibility of ensuring cooperation and coordination between member states, including the breakdown of tasks in order to ensure that citizens not represented receive full assistance in times of crisis. Where relevant, EU delegations should be entrusted with consular tasks, MEPs say. They should be authorised to conclude local arrangements with member states' representations on the subject of burden sharing and information exchange. The report by Edit Bauer (EPP) was adopted by 51 votes for, 5 against. It will be voted on in plenary session this October. (SP/transl.jl)