Member of European Parliament, Urmas Paet, said in his approach to European Commission that European External Action Service should develop consular function in order to help EU citizens in case of crises.
According to Paet EU has a wide External Action network and it should also be given a consular function to provide help for people in case of greater problems and disasters. “It is especially important to smaller and middle size member states how do not have External Action Services all around the world. Citizens of Estonia could also gain from it”, he added.
He added that as great expenses have already been made and EU External Action Service opened in many countries, it would make sense to add value by giving them a consular function as well. “So far some larger countries have been against it, however, most EU member states would prefer giving the consular function”, he said.
Paet submitted a written question to European Commission, asking what are possibilities of adding consular function to European External Action Services as soon as possible.