On Monday 12 December, the European Commission adopted a decision to unify EU rules on the emergency travel document. These are new technical details to standardise the EU’s emergency travel document and strengthen its security features, it explained in a statement.
This Commission implementing decision clarifies the specificities of emergency travel documents established by a 2019 directive, which will be in full application in 2025.
“Since 1996, EU citizens who have had their passports stolen or lost while travelling abroad can obtain emergency travel documents from the embassies or consulates of EU Member States other than their own. However, the old format did not meet modern security standards and, as a result, some Member States stopped using it”, explains the European Commission.
This new document created by the directive - a single travel document valid for 15 days - will be issued by Member States’ embassies and consulates to non-represented EU citizens who lose their passport while travelling outside the EU.
The additional technical specifications relate to the design, format and colours of the standard form, requirements for printing materials and techniques and security requirements, with enhanced standards to combat counterfeiting and falsification.
Link to the decision: https://aeur.eu/f/4mb (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)