Council Directive (EU) 2015/637 of 20 April 2015 on the coordination and cooperation measures to facilitate consular protection for unrepresented citizens of the Union in third countries and repealing Decision 95/553/EC

Article 2 - General principle
‘1. Member States' embassies or consulates shall provide consular protection to unrepresented citizens on the same conditions as to their own nationals.
2. Member States may decide that this Directive shall apply to the consular protection provided by honorary consuls in compliance with Article 23 TFEU. Member States shall ensure that unrepresented citizens are duly informed about such decisions and the extent to which honorary consuls are competent to provide protection in a given case.
Article 3 - Consular protection by the Member State of nationality
‘The Member State of nationality of an unrepresented citizen may request the Member State from whom the unrepresented citizen seeks or receives consular protection to redirect the unrepresented citizen's application or case to his/her own Member State of nationality in order for that Member State of nationality to provide consular protection in accordance with its national law or practice. The requested Member State shall relinquish the case as soon as the Member State of nationality confirms that it is providing consular protection to the unrepresented citizen.
Article 4 - Unrepresented citizens in third countries
‘For the purposes of this Directive, ‘unrepresented citizen’ shall mean every citizen holding the nationality of a Member State which is not represented in a third country as set out in Article 6.
Article 5 - Family members of unrepresented citizens in third countries
‘Consular protection shall be provided to family members, who are not themselves citizens of the Union, accompanying unrepresented citizens in a third country, to the same extent and on the same conditions as it would be provided to the family members of the citizens of the assisting Member State, who are not themselves citizens of the Union, in accordance with its national law or practice.
Article 6 - Absence of representation
‘For the purposes of this Directive, a Member State is not represented in a third country if it has no embassy or consulate established there on a permanent basis, or if it has no embassy, consulate or honorary consul there which is effectively in a position to provide consular protection in a given case.‘