Consular protection for EU citizens abroad

The number of EU citizens living and travelling outside the Union is steadily increasing, but only in three third countries are all 27 Member States (MS) present. Large-scale crises, such as the tsunami in 2004, the 2008 Georgia conflict, as well as the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in spring 2011, highlighted the right of "unrepre-sented" EU citizens to be provided with consular protection by the embassy or consulate of another MS. The Commission proposed a Direc-tive in December 2011, with the aim of clarifying the scope of consular protection.