EU citizens should have rights written into passports

EU citizens in the future should have the right to demand consular protection from embassies other than their own written into their passports, the European Commission has suggested.

In plans unveiled on Wednesday (5 December), Brussels has proposed citizens travelling in countries outside the EU, where their own nation is not represented, should be able to go to the embassies of other member states to ask for help.

From July 2009 this right - available to citizens since 1993 - should be written into new passports, or proclaimed on a sticker in still-valid passports.

The proposals come as an increasing number of EU citizens (between 30 to 50 million) live outside Europe, while around 7 million each year travel to countries where they have no diplomatic representation.

Read full article: EU Observer, 5 December 2007