Passports of the European Union


The European Union itself does not issue ordinary passports, but ordinary passport booklets issued by its 27 member states share a common format.
This common format features a coloured cover emblazoned—in the official language of the issuing country —with the title "European Union", followed by the name of the member state, the heraldic "Arms" of the State concerned, the word "PASSPORT", together with the biometric passport symbol at the bottom centre of the front cover.
Some EU member states also issue non-EU passports to certain people who have a nationality which does not render them citizens of the European Union.
In addition, the European Commission issues European Union Laissez-Passers to the members and certain civil servants of its institutions.

Use

With a valid passport, EU citizens are entitled to exercise the right of free movement in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and, until 31 December 2020 in the United Kingdom.
The passports of EU citizens are not stamped when entering and leaving the Schengen Area.
When going through border controls to enter an aforementioned country, citizens possessing valid biometric passports are sometimes able to use automated gates instead of immigration counters. For example, when entering the United Kingdom, at major airports, holders of EU biometric passports who are twelve years of age or older can use ePassport gates, whilst all other EU citizens and some non-EEA citizens must use an immigration counter. Anyone travelling with children under the age of 12 must also use an immigration counter.
As an alternative to holding a passport, EU citizens can also use a valid national identity card to exercise their right of free movement within the EEA, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Strictly speaking, it is not necessary for an EU citizen to possess a valid passport or national identity card to enter the EEA or Switzerland. In theory, if an EU citizen outside of both the EEA and Switzerland can prove their nationality by any other means, they must be permitted to enter the EEA or Switzerland. An EU citizen who is unable to demonstrate their nationality satisfactorily must nonetheless be given 'every reasonable opportunity' to obtain the necessary documents or to have them delivered within a reasonable period of time.

Common design features

While considerable progress has been made in harmonising some features, the data page can be found at the front or at the back of an EU passport booklet and there are significant design differences throughout to indicate which member state is the issuer.
Since the 1980s, European Union member states have started to harmonise aspects of the designs of their ordinary passport booklets. Most passports issued by EU member states have the common recommended layout; burgundy in colour with the words "European Union" accompanied by the name of the issuing member state printed on the cover. Non-standard types of passports, such as passport cards, diplomatic, service, and emergency passports have not yet been harmonised.
The newest EU member state Croatia refused to fully comply with the EU common recommended layout even though the Croatian passport has been changed in design due to the recent accession into the EU. From 3 August 2015, the new Croatian passport retained its dark blue passport cover and is the odd one out among the 27 European Union member states' passports.
The common design features are a result of several non-binding resolutions:
The security characteristics in EU passports are regulated through both non-binding resolutions and binding regulations:
Only Irish passports are not obliged by EU law to contain fingerprint information in their chip. With the exception of passports issued by Denmark and Ireland, all EU citizens applying for a new ordinary passport or passport renewal by 28 August 2006 and 28 June 2009 should have been biometrically enrolled. This is a consequence of Regulation 2252/2004 in combination with two follow-up decisions by the European Commission.

Overall format

Information on the cover, in this order, in the language of the issuing state:
Information on the first page, in one or more of the languages of the European Union:
Information on the identification page, in the languages of the issuing state plus English and French, accompanied by numbers that refer to an index that lists the meaning of these fields in all official EU languages:
On the top of the identification page there is the code "P" for passport, the code for the issuing country, and the passport number. On the left side there is the photo. On other places there might optionally be a national identification number, the height and security features.
For the place of birth in an Irish passport, only the county of birth is shown for people born on the island of Ireland; for Irish citizens born outside Ireland, only the three-letter international code of the country of birth is provided.

Machine-readable zone

Like all biometric passports, the newer EU passports contain a Machine-readable zone, which contains the name, nationality and most other information from the identification page. It is designed in a way so that computers can fairly easily read the information, although still human readable, since it contains only letters, digits and "<" as space character, but no bar graph or similar.
;Personal name spelling differences
Names containing non-English letters are usually spelled in the correct way in the visual zone of the passport, but are mapped into A-Z according to the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization in the machine-readable zone.
The following mapping is specified for EU languages: å → AA; ä/æ → AE; ö/ø/œ → OE, ü → UE or UXX and ß → SS.
Letters with accents are otherwise replaced by simple letters. For Greek and Bulgarian there are mapping tables based on translitteration into English. They use both their and Latin alphabet in the visual zone.
For example, the German names Müller becomes MUELLER, Groß becomes GROSS, and Gößmann becomes GOESSMANN.
The ICAO mapping is mostly used for computer-generated and internationally used documents such as air tickets, but sometimes also simple letters are used.
The three possible spelling variants of the same name in different documents sometimes lead to confusion, and the use of two different spellings within the same document may give people who are unfamiliar with the foreign orthography the impression that the document is a forgery.
It is recommended to use the spelling used in the machine-readable passport zone for visas, airline tickets, etc., and to refer to that zone if being questioned. The same thing applies if the name is too long to fit in the airline's ticket system, otherwise problems can arise.

Following page

Optional information on the following page:

Remaining pages

Former Passports of the European Union

Following the UK's withdrawal from the European Union in January 2020, the UK and Gibraltar ceased to issue EU passports. During the transition period, UK and Gibraltar passport are de facto EU passports, conferring their holders the rights of EU citizens. The transition period is currently scheduled to end on the 31st of December 2020, unless otherwise extended. Prior to the introduction of the current UK passport in March 2020, the British passports conformed to the EU standard design. Between March 2019 and March 2020, passports were issued without the 'EUROPEAN UNION' header. Passports issued in Gibraltar are expected to change to the new UK design in 2020.
Former Member state or territoryDate of EU
withdrawal		Passport coverBiodata pageValidityIssuing authorityLatest version
United Kingdom31st January 2020

  • 10 years
  • 5 years
HM Passport Office
United Kingdom31st January 2020
  • 10 years
  • 5 years
    		• HM Passport Office
    United Kingdom31st January 2020
  • 10 years
  • 5 years
    		• HM Passport Office
    Gibraltar31st January 2020October 2015 - January 2020Gibraltar Civil Status and Registration Office

    Passport rankings

    , passport rankings by the number of countries and territories their holders could visit without a visa or by obtaining visa on arrival in April 2020 were as follows:
    CountryNumber of destinations
    Austria187
    Belgium185
    Bulgaria171
    Croatia170
    Cyprus174
    Czech Republic184
    Denmark187
    Estonia179
    Finland188
    France186
    Germany189
    Greece184
    Hungary182
    Ireland186
    Italy188
    Latvia180
    Lithuania181
    Luxembourg188
    Malta184
    Netherlands186
    Poland181
    Portugal186
    Romania172
    Slovakia181
    Slovenia180
    Spain188
    Sweden186

    Some other countries, including EEA and former EU :
    CountryNumber of destinations
    Japan191
    Norway185
    Switzerland185
    United Kingdom185
    United States185
    Iceland180
    Liechtenstein178

    Multiple and simultaneous passports

    Same country

    Some EU countries, such as Germany, France, Ireland and Malta, allow their citizens to have several passports at once to circumvent certain travel restrictions. This can be useful if wanting to travel while a passport remains at a consulate while a visa application is processed, or wanting to apply for further visas while already in a foreign country. It can also be needed to circumvent the fact that visitors whose passports show evidence of a visit to Israel are not allowed to enter Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

    Multiple citizenship

    Each EU member state can make its own citizenship laws, so some countries allow dual or multiple citizenship without any restrictions, some allow multiple citizenships but ignore existence of other citizenships within their borders, some regulate/restrict it, and others allow it only in exceptional cases or only for citizens by descent.
    A citizen of an EU member state may live and work in all other EU and EFTA countries. Non-citizens may not have the same rights to welfare and unemployment benefits as citizens.

    Emergency passports

    Decision 96/409/CSFP of the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council of 25 June 1996 on the establishment of an emergency travel document decided that there would be a standard emergency travel document.
    ETDs are issued to European Union citizens for a single journey back to the EU country of which they are a national, to their country of permanent residence or, in exceptional cases, to another destination. The decision does not apply to expired national passports; it is specifically restricted to cases where valid and unexpired passports have been lost, stolen, destroyed, or are temporarily unavailable.
    Embassies and consulates of EU countries different to the applicant may issue emergency travel documents if
    1. the applicant is an EU national whose passport or travel document has been lost, stolen, destroyed, or is temporarily unavailable;
    2. the applicant is in a country in which the EU country of which s/he is a national has no accessible diplomatic or consular representation able to issue a travel document or in which the EU country in question is not otherwise represented;
    3. clearance from the authorities of the applicant's country of origin has been obtained.

      Right to consular protection in non-EU countries

    As a consequence of citizenship of the European Union, when in a non-EU country, EU citizens whose country maintains no diplomatic mission there have the right to consular protection and assistance from a diplomatic mission of any other EU country present in the non-EU country.

    Other EEA passports and Swiss passports

    Like passports issued by EU member states, passports of other EEA states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway – as well as of Switzerland, can also be used to exercise the right of free movement within the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
    As part of the Schengen agreement, passports and travel documents issued by member states shall comply with minimum security standards, and passports must incorporate a storage medium that contains the holder's facial image and fingerprints. This obligation does not apply to identity cards or to temporary passports and travel documents with a validity of one year or less. Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein are bound by the rules, as Regulation No 2252/2004 constitutes a development of provisions of the Schengen acquis within the meaning of the Agreement concluded by the Council of the European Union and Iceland and Norway, the agreement concluded by the European Union, the European Community and the Swiss Confederation, and the Protocol signed between the European Union, the European Community, the Swiss Confederation and the Principality of Liechtenstein on the accession of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the Agreement between the European Union, the European Community and the Swiss Confederation, concerning the association of the four States with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis.