Legislative proposal on EU Emergency Travel Document submitted to Parliament

Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs has prepared a proposal to enact a new act on the European Union Emergency Travel Document (EU ETD) and to amend the Consular Services Act and the Passport Act. The Government submitted the proposal to Parliament on 9 October. The acts are scheduled to enter into force on 8 December 2025.

The proposed new act and the amendments proposed to the Consular Services Act and the Passport Act would incorporate into Finnish law the provisions of the Council Directive establishing an EU Emergency Travel Document. The main objective of the Directive is to establish a modernised and more secure format for the EU Emergency Travel Document (EU ETD) and to ensure that all EU ETDs have the same format and technical and security features regardless of the issuing Member State. The new act would introduce more detailed provisions on EU ETDs and on the conditions and procedure for issuing EU ETDs, as required by the Council Directive.

EU ETDs are single-journey documents, allowing the bearer to return home, or, exceptionally, to another destination, in the event that they do not have access to their regular travel documents, for example because they were stolen or lost. The first EU ETDs were issued in 1996. Finland issues an average of 80 to 100 EU ETDs annually to unrepresented EU citizens.

Finland issues EU ETDs to citizens of EU Member States in countries outside the EU when the citizens hold the nationality of an EU Member State which is not represented in the country in question. Similarly, Finnish citizens may apply for an EU Emergency Travel Document at a mission of another EU Member State if they are in a country where Finland is not represented.