The Green Paper "Diplomatic and consular protection of Union citizens in third countries" presented by the Commission in 2006 focuses on the right established in Article 20 of the EC Treaty. Under this Article, if a citizen of the Union is in a third country in which the Member State of which he is a national does not have an embassy or a consular post, he is entitled to protection by the authorities of any Member State represented on the spot, on the same conditions as the nationals of that State.
In this document the European Commission sets out ideas to be considered for strengthening this right, pointing out that European citizens are not fully aware of this right whose legal consequences are far from being fully implemented by the Member States.
With the publication of the Green Paper the Commission launched a wide public consultation on this issue. In the Action Plan 2007-2009 "Effective consular protection in third countries: the contribution of the European Union", the Commission states that it emerged during the public consultation that the extent of consular protection varies between Member States. Discrepancies may deprive Article 20 TEC of its full effect. The Commission will examine Member States' legislations and practices on consular protection and assess the extent and nature of these discrepancies."
The CARE (Citizens Consular Assistance Regulation in Europe) project aims at offering to the Commission tools helping it in performing this examination, being:
- a Report analysing the legal framework in all the EU member States
- A data base collecting all relevant legal documentation from all EU countries
The database will be also accessible by all the European citizens via Internet
