Consular Protection: helping European citizens abroad must be a priority.

Today, the European Parliament's plenary adopted Edit Bauer's Report on the Consular Protection of EU Citizens Abroad by an overwhelming majority. The aim of the Directive is to establish the conditions of coordination and cooperation necessary to facilitate consular protection of those citizens who do not have their Member States' representation in the third country.

The legislation intends to replace Decision 95/553 regarding consular protection for EU citizens by diplomatic and consular representations, in view of the legal framework established by the Lisbon Treaty.

Edit Bauer MEP highlighted that there are two major types of consular services. The first and most common one is consular help in everyday situations - like the loss of a passport, being a victim of crime, accident, or even death. However there are more and more cases of crisis situations too, where EU citizens might need help.

"While in cases of everyday consular situations, citizens can seek help at any consulate or embassy of any Member State, crisis situations are different. All the involved EP Committees almost unanimously agreed that no Member State or Lead State should bear the burden of dealing with evacuations and all other crisis-related tasks, including assistance to unrepresented EU citizens, so the role of coordination should be shifted to the Union delegation", explained the Rapporteur.

"This proposal is an excellent example to show that more Europe does not necessarily mean more bureaucracy. More Europe could mean more help for European citizens who are in need, more protection for those unrepresented citizens in third countries who find themselves in precarious or crisis situations", emphasised Mrs Bauer.

However, one question remains open: whether or not we should include the refugees and stateless persons staying legally in a Member State into this Directive? In order to find a suitable answer, we asked for an Opinion of the Legal Service. According to this Opinion, "the scope ratione personae of the legal basis of our Directive cannot be widened as to impose an obligation upon the Member State to provide consular protection abroad to refugees, stateless persons and other persons who are not nationals of a Member State but are resident in a Member State and are holders of a travel document issued by that Member State."

"There is no doubt that this Directive is an expression of European solidarity among European nations. We definitely need legislations like this to promote the European Union among its citizens and to show them that it is worth being an EU citizen", concluded the Rapporteur.