Brussels, 20/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU member states have adopted the directive on consular protection for European citizens living or travelling outside the EU after three years of negotiations, the European Commission says in a press release.
The agreement reached in Luxembourg on Monday 20 April clarifies when and how EU citizens in distress - for example, when their identity papers have been lost or stolen, after they have been the victims of physical violence or if they need to be evacuated as a matter of urgency following political disruption - in a country outside the EU have the right to receive assistance from other EU countries' embassies or consulates.
The directive seeks to strengthen solidarity among consular services when nationals of a fellow EU member state, which has no diplomatic representation or cannot provide protection, find themselves in difficulty in non-EU countries. Almost 7 million EU citizens (a figure set to rise to 10 million by 2020) travel or live outside the EU in places where their own EU country does not have an embassy or consulate, the Commission says.
The directive makes it clear that unrepresented EU citizens have the right, in situations of distress, to seek help from any other EU country. And the other EU countries must provide them with whatever assistance they would provide to their own nationals. The home country of the citizens seeking help will always be consulted by the country from which help is being sought and can, at any time, decide to take care of its own citizens, even when it has no embassy or consulate in the country concerned, the Commission points out. The directive also states that a citizen seeking help from an embassy may be redirected to another which is better placed to assist. Equally, the directive makes clear who should pay for what: if the assistance provided implies certain costs or fees, unrepresented EU citizens will not have to pay more than citizens of the EU country which assists them. Citizens who are not able to pay these costs on the spot will be asked to sign a form by which they undertake to repay those costs to their own authorities, if requested to do so. (Solenn Paulic)