Diplomatic passport

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The diplomatic passport is a passport intended for cross-border travel , which is usually only issued to diplomats and high-ranking officials and elected officials , such as members of parliament or ministerial officials with political functions. It should only be used for business travel. Service passports are issued to travelers on behalf of the state who are not diplomats and who do not exercise any political function .

Germany

German diplomatic passport (as a machine-readable identification document )

The issuing of diplomatic passports including temporary diplomatic passports is regulated in Germany in the Passport Ordinance. The only issuing authority for German diplomatic passports is the Federal Foreign Office (Section 505-9). Diplomatic passports are issued solely in the public interest, which is why the ordinance expressly clarifies that there is no entitlement to issue. § 4 of the General Administrative Regulation on the Issuance of Official Passports of the Federal Republic of Germany (AVVaP) regulates which constitutional bodies , officials and mandate holders receive a diplomatic passport.

  • Diplomatic passports are issued in their capacity as constitutional organs or as members of the constitutional organs of the Federation
  1. the Federal President ;
  2. the President and the Vice-Presidents of the German Bundestag ;
  3. the Federal Chancellor and the members of the Federal Government ;
  4. the President and Vice-Presidents of the Federal Council ;
  5. the President and the Vice-President of the Federal Constitutional Court ;
  6. the members of the German Bundestag ;
  7. the members and the deputy members of the Federal Council;
  8. the judges of the Federal Constitutional Court.
  • Diplomatic passports are issued in their capacity as members of the constitutional organs at the state level
  1. the prime ministers of the federal states ;
  2. the presidents of the state parliament ;
  3. the ministers of the countries .
  • Diplomatic passports are issued in their capacity as public officials with a place of employment in Germany
  1. the head of the office of the Federal President ;
  2. the ministers of state and parliamentary state secretaries attached to the members of the federal government ;
  3. the State Secretaries of the Federal Government;
  4. the director at the German Bundestag ;
  5. the director of the Federal Council ;
  6. the head of the press and information office of the federal government and his deputies;
  7. the President of the Federal Audit Office ;
  8. the President and the members of the Board of Management of the Deutsche Bundesbank ;
  9. employees working at the headquarters of the Federal Foreign Office from the position of deputy head of department upwards; the other employees of the Federal Foreign Office for the duration of business trips if the trip or the fulfillment of the purpose of the trip or the stay without a diplomatic passport would not be possible or would be significantly more difficult due to circumstances that can be proven in individual cases.
  • Diplomatic passports are issued in their capacity as official or elected officials with a place of employment abroad
  1. the employees assigned to the diplomatic missions of the Federal Republic of Germany, including soldiers , who are to be registered on the diplomatic or consular list in accordance with the provisions of the Foreign Office;
  2. the German heads of delegation in the European External Action Service as well as federal and state employees on leave to provide services in the European External Action Service;
  3. the German members of the European Commission ;
  4. the German members of the European Parliament and the German members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and their deputies;
  5. the German judges and the advocates general at the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights ;
  6. German employees in international organizations of which the Federal Republic of Germany is a member, insofar as they head these organizations or are classified in one of the two highest salary groups of the organization;
  7. Federal and state employees on leave to provide services to international organizations of which the Federal Republic of Germany is a member, provided they belong to at least grade A 16 or a salary level corresponding to this grade.

According to the regulation, other people can be issued with a diplomatic passport "for trips that they carry out on official orders or in the special German interest, in exceptional cases also for trips with a longer stay, if these trips would not be possible without a diplomatic passport or would be significantly more difficult in individual cases ".

The possession of a diplomatic passport does not in itself lead to diplomatic immunity . This is only brought about by the accreditation of a diplomat or an official invitation in a certain state, whereby this effect is limited to the accrediting or inviting state. Immunities for foreign diplomats in Germany are regulated in Sections 18 to 20 of the Courts Constitution Act.

For diplomatic passport holders of some states, regardless of the invitation or accreditation, they have the privilege of being exempt from the visa requirement , unlike the citizens of their state who present a regular passport . In Germany these exceptions are regulated in Section 19 of the Residence Ordinance; the associated list of states can be found in Appendix B to the Residence Ordinance.

In November 2016, the German government declared that it had no information on how many and to which people diplomatic passports were issued.

Austria

Austrian diplomatic passport

The issue of diplomatic passports is regulated in Section 6 of the Passport Act 1992.

Diplomatic passports are to be issued for

  1. the Federal President ,
  2. the presidents of the National Council , the presidents and the vice-presidents of the Federal Council ,
  3. the members of the Federal Government and the State Secretaries ,
  4. Members of the Foreign Policy Committee of the National Council and the members of the European Parliament elected in Austria,
  5. Senior staff at the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs ,
  6. other officials of the higher external service with the exception of retired officials,
  7. other contract employees of the higher external service after successfully passing the service examination,
  8. Members of the diplomatic staff of Austrian professional representation authorities,
  9. the heads of coordination offices of the Austrian Society for Development Cooperation and their deputies,
  10. other persons who are employed by the Republic of Austria in a diplomatic or consular function abroad,
  11. Persons who work in a leading position in international organizations and institutions if this activity is in the foreign policy interests of the Republic of Austria, and
  12. the spouses or registered partners of the persons named in numbers 1, 8 and 9, the underage children of the persons named in numbers 8 and 9 if they live with them in the same household, as well as other family members living in the same household of the persons in numbers 8 and 9 named persons.

According to Section 15 (2a) of the Passport Act 1992, service or diplomatic passports are to be withdrawn if the requirements for issuance are no longer met.

In Austria it was customary until 2012 to leave diplomatic passports for former federal ministers , their spouses and state secretaries after their term of office had expired, if they so wished. They did not have to perform a political function or an official mission to do so. The Austrian bishops were also given diplomatic passports by the Foreign Ministry. With the federal law amending the Passport Act 1992 , Section 6 was rewritten and paragraph 2 stipulated that the entitlement to a diplomatic passport expires upon termination of the function relevant to the issue of a diplomatic passport and the passport holder immediately gives the diplomatic passport to the issuing authority has to postpone for cancellation. The ministry sent a letter to those affected to return the passport by October 25, 2012 at the latest. The document is now only available to active diplomats and members of the government.

Since the reform in 2012, the diplomatic passport has been bright red, the service passport dark blue.

See also

Web links

Commons : Diplomatic Passports  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Diplomatic passport  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ General administrative regulation on the issuance of official passports of the Federal Republic of Germany from June 27, 2014 (AVVaP)
  2. ↑ Arnd Henze: Amazing ignorance. In: https://blog.ard-hauptstadtstudio.de . ARD Capital Studio, November 7, 2016, accessed on May 5, 2020 .
  3. ^ Austria: 3138 people have a diplomatic passport , the press on March 13, 2012
  4. ↑ Federal Law Gazette I No. 60/2012 of July 24, 2012.
  5. ^ BZÖ-Grosz: After diplomatic passport also reform service passport - recipients completely unclear! , APA on January 13, 2012