Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-02-04-Speech-3-294"
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"en.20090204.17.3-294"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am standing in, today, for my fellow Commissioner Jacques Barrot, who would have liked to have been here in person but has an institutional commitment to attend to.
The entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon would provide a clear legal basis for EU legal provisions in this area. The new wording of Article 20 of the EC Treaty (Article 23 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) allows for the adoption of directives ‘establishing the coordination and cooperation measures necessary to facilitate such protection’. This means that the Commission could be tabling legislative proposals for this field in the near future.
Under Article 20 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, every citizen of the Union, when in the territory of a third country in which the Member State of which he is a national is not represented, is entitled to protection by the consular authorities of any Member State, on the same conditions as the nationals of that State. Article 20 also provides that the Member States are to establish the necessary rules among themselves to secure this protection. Mr Vondra has already gone into this. In light of this, the Member States have introduced coordination mechanisms for consular protection, in particular through the guidelines laid down in 2006 and 2008, which are not legally binding but which help missions to build their cooperation on the ground.
In addition, Article 20 of the Treaty on European Union obliges the diplomatic and consular missions of the Member States to step up their cooperation.
In December 2008, the Council agreed guidelines for the implementation of the Lead State concept in relation to consular cooperation. Under the guidelines, in a future major crisis with consequences for consular protection in the third country in question, one Member State is to be nominated as the ‘Lead State’ and assume responsibility for the protection of EU citizens on behalf of the other Member States. The Lead State is to coordinate all the measures implemented by the Member States on the ground and is responsible for ensuring that all EU citizens receive support. Anyone who is entitled to consular protection from their own Member State is entitled to ask the Lead State for assistance.
This is intended to facilitate cooperation between the Member States on the ground, with the idea being that additional resources in the form of staff, funding, equipment and medical teams will be made available. The Lead State is also to be given the responsibility for coordinating and leading measures to provide assistance, reunite people and, where necessary, evacuate citizens to a safe destination, with the assistance of the other Member States affected. However, the Member States need to agree on what exactly is meant by the wording ‘in which the Member State [...] is not represented’ under Article 20 of the EC Treaty. This should cover situations where an EU citizen, for whatever reason, is unable to reach any mission of his/her own Member State. The Member States are currently working on drawing up joint criteria for this.
That, then, is the situation on paper. The fact that the practical reality can be quite different is something that a few Members of this House can testify. I have seen on the list of speakers that Mr Guardans Cambó, Mr Karim and Mrs Mann intend to speak on this issue. They will certainly be telling us something of their experiences in Mumbai last December. I have the impression, even though only three Member States do not have an embassy in New Delhi and that only seven do not maintain a consulate in Mumbai, that it was still very difficult – and I will express this very carefully – for affected European citizens to obtain adequate protection.
I am pointing this out now because it is, of course, right to learn from experiences such as this. In the light of this experience, the Commission takes the view that there is still much work to be done to ensure that the citizens of the European Union are able to claim – to the full and in real life – the right guaranteed them under Article 20 of the EC Treaty. The citizens expect the European Union to provide added value in their protection in a third country. Protection provided by diplomatic and consular missions is not, at the end of the day, limited to crisis situations, but also covers the provision of assistance in everyday situations.
The Commission proposes, amongst other things, better information for EU citizens – we have already proposed that the wording of Article 20 be printed in every passport and displayed on posters in airports and travel agencies, and we are also working on a consular protection website with the General Secretariat of the Council, which would contain an up-to-date list of the Member States’ embassies and consulates in third countries.
As part of its mission of better providing EU citizens with what citizenship of the Union means to them, the Commission is ready to tackle every problem in this field that the citizens bring to its attention and to do everything in its power to realise the rights of protection to which EU citizens are entitled under Article 20."@en1
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