The state's responsibility to assist Swedes in emergency and disaster situations abroad
The report on the state's responsibility in emergency and disaster situations abroad was presented on 2 April 2008. Mats Svegfors, the Committee Chair, presented the report to Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt.
On 3 April 2007 the Government decided to appoint an all-party committee with the task of examining how to formulate the state's responsibility to assist Swedes in emergency and disaster situations abroad.
The committee's remit
In 2007, the committee was tasked with examining the scope of the state's responsibility in relation to individuals, insurance companies and travel operators/airlines in connection with emergency and disaster situations abroad that necessitate action beyond normal consular assistance as regulated in the Consular Financial Assistance Act (2003:491), particularly with regard to evacuations.
Questions to be answered
In accordance with the Government's remit, the committee is to:
- consider the possibilities of drafting a number of guiding principles for determining situations in which an evacuation should be conducted,
- propose who and what should be included in the state's responsibility for an evacuation and consider where to evacuate to,
- propose possible ways of dividing the final costs of an evacuation between the state, individuals (possibly through insurance coverage) and travel operators/airlines,
- determine whether there is a need for new legislation and required legislative amendments to regulate how the financial responsibility for an evacuation is divided, and, where necessary, present legislative proposals, and
- determine whether there is a need for required legislative amendments in the area of visas for evacuation situations and, where necessary, present legislative proposals.
