EU consular cooperation in crisis situations

Abstract

Inside the territory of the European Union all 27 EU Member States are represented in all other states. This means that if an EU citizen travels to another EU Member State, he or she will find at least the embassy of his or her motherland in the capital of that EU Member State. However, outside the EU-borders there are today only three capitals in which all Member States are represented; Beijing, Moscow and Washington DC.1 At the end of 2004 when the tsunami hit South East Asia, most of the Member States did not have a representation in the countries that where affected by the disaster. In the popular tourist destination Thailand, for example, 17 Member States were represented whereas only six were represented in Sri Lanka and three in Brunei.2 Based on the experiences of recent crisis the EU has engaged in consular cooperation to improve the protection of EU citizens in third countries. Although not very well known among the citizens of the European Union, they can today receive consular assistance from any other Member State in a country where a persons' own country lacks representation.3 © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.