Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to adopted text

AddedRecital 13: (13) When providing consular protection to unrepresented citizens, Member States should take into account an intersectional approach to the specific needs of vulnerable groups, such as unaccompanied minors, victims of force marriage or marital captivity who should be provided with legal and psychological support, pregnant women, persons with reduced mobility, elderly people, persons with disabilities or individuals at risk of discrimination on any ground such as those referred to in Article 21 of the Charter

AddedRecital 19: (19) In order to ensure preparedness regarding possible consular crises requiring the provision of assistance to unrepresented citizens - including natural disasters, political unrest or terrorist attacks -, local consular cooperation among Member States and Union delegations in third countries should include exchanges on matters relevant to such citizens, including their security and safety, the establishment of joint consular contingency plans and mechanisms for quick response, and the organisation of consular exercises. In this context, it can be particularly relevant for the consular authorities of unrepresented Member States to be included in such local consular cooperation when coordinating on consular crisis preparedness and response.

AddedRecital 23: (23) Joint consular contingency plans should also take into account, where appropriate, the roles and responsibilities of Lead States, that is, Member States represented in a given third country that are in charge of coordinating and leading the assistance of unrepresented citizens during crises, to ensure the effective coordination of consular assistance. In addition, joint consular contingency plans should be evaluated annually or more frequently if there are extraordinary circumstances that require so, in the context of consular exercises to ensure their continued relevance. At the same time, joint consular contingency plans should not be understood as replacing existing national crisis plans of Member States or affecting their responsibility to provide consular assistance to their own nationals, but as a coherent approach that can additionally help to coordinate the efforts of the represented Member States.

AddedRecital 25: (25) Travel advice, that is, information issued by Member States about the relative safety of travelling to specific third countries, should be regularly updated in order to enable travellers to make an informed decision about a particular travel destination, including third countries where their Member State of nationality is not represented. While the issuance of travel advice is the responsibility of Member States, it is appropriate that they coordinate on that topic, notably in the context of crises, with a view to ensuring consistency in the level of advice given. This could include agreeing on a common structure of the levels of risk indicated in travel advice, making use of the secure platform of the EEAS. Such coordination should take place at an early stage when Member States are planning to change the level of their travel advice.

AddedRecital 26: (26) Efficient coordination is vital to ensure effective crisis response. To ensure such coordination, Member States have to be supported and receive timely information by the Crisis Response Centre of the EEAS and the Emergency Response Coordination Centre of the Commission. Coordinated Union crisis response is particularly important in cases requiring evacuations to ensure that available support is provided quickly and efficiently, and that best use is made of available evacuation capacities. For that reason, first-hand and relevant information, such as on available evacuation capacity for instance, should be shared in a timely manner to be able to react rapidly and effectively, including in case of rescue and evacuation operations using military assets. In this regard, the EEAS should be able to receive automatic and continuous information from Member States on the situation in third countries

AddedRecital 28: (28) Joint consular teams should be based on the principles of solidarity with represented Member States, equality with regard to decisions on internal working structures, simplicity regarding composition of teams, cost-sharing – with each Member State, Union institution or body bearing its own operational costs – flexibility, visibility of the coordinated Union response and openness to relevant third countries.

AddedRecital 30: (30) To support Union citizens in need, it is important to provide them with reliable and easily accessible information on how to avail themselves of consular assistance in third countries, including digital contact options. The Commission services and the EEAS should disseminate in close coordination with Member States relevant information, including information to be provided by Member States on their consular networks and third countries where they have concluded practical arrangements on sharing responsibilities for providing consular protection to unrepresented citizens. To facilitate the processing of such information, it should be provided in machine-readable format.

AddedRecital 30 a (new): (30a) Member States should ensure that citizens have easy access to up-to date information regarding consular protection. In this regard, EU citizens should receive prompt notifications regarding their rights and procedures for exercising them while in third countries, particularly during crisis situations.

AddedRecital 31: (31) Member States should take additional measures to further contribute to raising Union citizen’s awareness of their right to consular protection, also taking into account the specific needs of persons with disabilities. Given the limited costs it entails Member States should reproduce the wording of Article 23 TFEU in passports issued by Member States as a way to enhance citizens’ awareness of the right to protection by diplomatic and consular authorities, as already recommended by Commission Recommendation C(2007) 58415 . Member States should also feature information on the right to consular protection enjoyed by unrepresented citizens in travel advice and campaigns relating to consular assistance. They should also cooperate with passenger transport service providers and transport hubs offering travel to third countries, for example by inviting them to add relevant information on the right to consular protection to the information materials made available to customers.

AddedRecital 32: (32) The financial provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/637 should be adapted to simplify reimbursements and continue ensuring financial burden-sharing. In particular, it should be possible for unrepresented citizens to directly reimburse costs, under the same conditions as nationals of the assisting Member State, for the service provided by that Member State to avoid the administrative burden resulting from seeking reimbursements from the citizen’s Member State of nationality. In addition, Member States should also be allowed to waive the charging of such costs. As, in certain situations, unrepresented citizens may not be able to pay when making the request for assistance, notably when their cash and means to access funds have been stolen, it is necessary to provide that they may be required by the consular authorities of the assisting Member State to sign an undertaking to repay. On the basis of such an undertaking, the authorities of the assisting Member State may ask for the reimbursement of the costs once three months have passed since the assistance was provided

AddedRecital 33: (33) In cases where the costs have not been repaid by the citizen directly, that is, neither immediately when making the request or at a later stage when having been requested to do so by the assisting Member State on the basis of the undertaking to repay, the assisting Member State should be entitled to ask for the reimbursement of the costs due from the unrepresented citizen’s Member State of nationality. To avoid being faced with requests for reimbursement after long periods, the assisting Member State and Member State of nationality should be given a reasonable deadline to, respectively, make the request and reimbursement. The deadline should take into account the complexity of the problem, the involvement of the facility's staff and the duration of assistance

AddedRecital 34 a (new): (34a) An appropriate increase of the EEAS budget and human resources should be granted, in addition to the revenue from Member States reimbursements, to guarantee the proper execution of responsibilities in providing assistance and/or protection to EU citizens.

AddedRecital 41: (41) When processing such special categories of personal data, the competent authorities of the Member States and Union institutions and bodies should ensure suitable and specific measures to safeguard data subjects’ interests and rights. This should include, where possible, encrypting such personal data and specific attribution of access rights for personnel who have access to the specified types of special categories of personal data.