Last updated at 10:30 10 September 2007

Mention of the Queen could be removed from British passports and replaced by a page explaining why all EU citizens are entitled to use our embassies abroad, it emerged yesterday. 

Current UK passports contain a traditional message from the British sovereign printed inside the front cover requesting 'assistance and protection' for the holder anywhere in the world 'in the Name of Her Majesty'.

But the time-honoured passage could be dropped as a result of the new European Treaty - which critics claim is simply a repackaged version of the discredited EU Constitution.

A new message would set out rules under which any EU citizen who gets into trouble in a country where their own state has no representative can go to the British embassy and demand help.



The proposals attracted fierce criticism yesterday, with opposition critics claiming there was no good reason to ditch the traditional wording and warning that the plans highlighted the importance of giving British voters a say in a referendum on the Treaty - which Gordon Brown is refusing to allow.

Brussels forced Britain to change its passports 20 years ago when the popular 'Old Blue' hardback documents were abandoned in favour of a smaller, flimsier, standardised burgundy design.

But the passage of text - which originated more than three centuries ago when the monarch stopped signing every passport in person - survived that change, as well as the subsequent addition of security features.

Newly-issued UK passports still contain the impressive words: 'Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State Requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.'

As part of moves to implement a new EU Treaty, commissioners in Brussels now want to include the rules on consular representation for EU citizens. This dry, bureaucratic prose states that: 'Every citizen of the Union shall, in the territory of a third country in which the members of state of which he is a national is not represented, be entitled to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of any member state, on the same conditions as the nationals of that state.'

Britain has made no objection to including the passage in new passports, and stated in an official submission to Brussels: 'We agree that printing Article 20 in future designs of passports may prove to be an effective means of disseminating information to EU citizens.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said the change was 'still under consideration', and it had not yet been decided whether the new text would be an addition, or whether it would replace the message from the Sovereign.

The Home Office insisted there were 'currently no plans' to revamp the documents.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said: 'People
want to be proud to be British and their passports should have a clear association with that. There is no good reason to change the traditional presentation of our passports. 'This is yet another illustration of how the British people must be given their say in a referendum before any new powers are signed over to the EU under a proposed new treaty.'

Citizens of other EU member states have had the right to demand help from British diplomats abroad since 2001, if their own country has no embassy or representative locally.

But with the EU expanding greatly since then, the deal has given rise to fears that UK consular staff will be swamped by requests for support.

Britain has one of the largest networks of foreign embassies and high commissions of any EU state, far larger than countries such as Estonia, Latvia, Romania or Bulgaria.

Anyone from such countries who lost a passport or was arrested by local police would be just as entitled to help from British officials as UK citizens.

By royal command since the year 1414
By JANE FRYER

The British passport has had a long and proud history and a good many revamps - but there has been one constant. For 600 years it has been inextricably linked to our monarch.

Introduced in 1414, and mentioned by Henry V in his speech on the eve of Agincourt (according to Shakespeare), a passport or 'Safe Conduct' started out as just a note issued to someone travelling on the king's business.

Written in Latin or English and personally signed by the monarch, it asked that the holder be allowed to travel freely, and specified the destination, time and purpose of his journey.

There were, of course, earlier passports. The first known reference is found in the Bible's Book of Nehemiah, when an official serving a Persian king asks to travel to Judah. The king agrees and gives him a letter demanding he is granted safe passage.

The term passport probably originates from medieval documents which were sometimes required to pass through the gates - 'porte' in Latin - of ancient walled cities. In medieval times, such documents could be issued by local authorities.

The oldest surviving British passport --signed by King Charles I - was issued on June 18, 1641. The latest record of a monarch signing was in 1778, by George III for Sir John Stepney who from 1775 to 1782 was on a diplomatic mission to Dresden.

Like all British passports issued between 1772 and 1858, it was written in French - the official language of diplomacy. From 1794 the system changed so that passports were granted by the Secretary of State and centrally registered.

The First World War was the catalyst for a shake-up. Nation states issued passports to distinguish their own citizens from foreign nationals. At the outbreak of war, they were printed on paper, with a gluedon photo of the holder and cost 6d but they changed again when the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 came into force in 1915.

This determined in law that all persons born in the United Kingdom and Crown's dominions would hold the status of British subject and was the first modern British passport - a one-page document folded into eight, with a cardboard cover and a detailed personal description.

Again the design was short-lived. A League of Nations conference in 1920 agreed to a book-format passport for member states, each to be issued in two languages - their own and French. Thus 'Old Blue', the passport sporting the Royal Coat of Arms, traditional wording and issued at the discretion of the government under the Royal Prerogative, was born. Over the next 68 years, other than the removal of the name of the Secretary of State from the text of the first page in 1954, and small security-related changes, very little changed. But in 1988 Old Blue was replaced by today's shrunken burgundy booklet with European Union on the cover.

Initially it was desperately unpopular but, despite cosmetic changes, its essential Britishness - the Royal Coat of Arms in gold on the front and the traditional wording on the first page - remained. It was still a UK passport, not an EU one - a fact very dear to our hearts.

Which is why, when the Royal Coat of Arms came under threat in 2000 - EU commissioner Antonio Vitorino wanted to replace it with the 12 yellow stars of the EU - there was such an uproar that the proposals were hurriedly shelved.