Proposed Act on Consular Disaster Response 2009/10:98

The proposed Act aims to clarify the State's responsibility, in other words to make clear in which situations the State is required to act when a large number of Swedes and people with close ties to Sweden are affected. In the main, the State is to have preparedness to be able to intervene and support individuals. The Act also aims to clarify the responsibility of the individual in these situations. The basic principle is that the individual has a fundamental responsibility when staying abroad.

The State's responsibility is to be secondary and is to supplement the activities of other actors. These actors may include travel and insurance companies, or the authorities of the country affected. The Government decides if a consular disaster response is to be implemented. The Government will also need to make a decision on granting funds for the response. The Government Offices, through the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has the responsibility for overall coordination and must decide on how the resources are to be used.

The individual will be required to reimburse the State for costs incurred when transported or given health and medical care within a consular disaster response, i.e. for costs defrayed directly on his or her behalf and that should be covered by any travel insurance. In that way the individual's fundamental responsibility is emphasised for visits abroad.