UE citizens' rights to consular assistance outside the EU, how to get assistance and EU rules on consular protection. 

As an EU citizen, you are entitled to seek help from the embassy or consulate of any other EU country if you find yourselves in a situation where you need advice or assistance outside the EU, with no embassy or consulate from your own country to help you (you are "unrepresented"). 

Unrepresented EU citizens are entitled to receive consular protection under the same conditions as the nationals of that country. This is a right set out in Articles 20(2)c and 23 of the EU Treaty and Article 46 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. 

The EU is working to further improve consular protection for EU citizens. 

For more information, visit the website on consular protection for EU citizens abroad and Consular protection outside the EU. 

If you wish to travel to a European country, procedures for obtaining a short-stay visa differ, depending on whether or not you intend to travel to a country that is a party to the Schengen Agreement, or to a non-Schengen EU Member State. 

Currently, the Schengen area consists of 26 European countries (of which 22 are EU states): Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. 

Being part of the Schengen area without internal border controls means that these countries: 

• Do not carry out border checks at their internal borders (i.e. borders between two Schengen states).
• Carry out harmonised controls, based on clearly defined criteria, at their external borders (i.e. borders between a Schengen state and a non-Schengen state). 

As a result, both EU citizens and non-EU nationals may freely travel within the Schengen area and are checked only when crossing the external border. 

Nationals from Zambia and other certain non-EU countries need a visa to enter into the Schengen area. The Schengen states have common rules for issuing short-stay Schengen visas, which are valid within the entire Schengen area. These visas allow a person to stay and travel in the territories of Schengen states for a maximum of 90 days in any 180-day period. 

Six EU member states are not, or not yet, part of the Schengen area: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the United Kingdom. This means that a flight from one of these states to a Schengen state is regarded as an external flight and is subject to border checks. 

Currently, travellers who reside in Zambia may contact the following consulates if their main destination or their first point of entry into the Schengen area is one of the following 23 countries:  

Contact details for non-Schengen EU visas  

In addition, the six EU Member States that are not part of the Schengen area issue visas for their countries individually in Lusaka or via their Embassies in South Africa: 

Erasmus+ is the European Union’s programme for education, training, youth and sport. Between 2014 and 2020, it will provide opportunities for four million people to study, train and gain life experience abroad. 

Erasmus+ replaces a number of older programmes, including an international exchange programme called Erasmus Mundus. 

See the Erasmus+ web portal’s Resources section for information about linguistic support, documents for applicants and the management of proposals.