ETS 063 is the Council of Europe’s treaty number for the European Convention of 1968 on the abolition of legalisation of documents executed by diplomatic agents or consular officers. It covers the one group of documents the Apostille Convention leaves out by name: papers drawn up by embassies and consulates. This entry gives its references, the gap it fills and the list of states that counts.
Signature, ratification and entry into force for Türkiye
According to the Council of Europe’s chart of signatures and ratifications, read on 21 September 2026, Türkiye signed the convention on 1 September 1980 and ratified it on 22 June 1987, and it entered into force for Türkiye on 23 September 1987. The chart counts 28 ratifications and accessions in all. The summary table of the French foreign ministry gives the same date for Türkiye, 23 September 1987, in its annex on this convention.
The gap it fills beside the Apostille Convention
The last paragraph of article 1 of the Apostille Convention states that the Convention does not apply to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents. Such a document cannot receive an apostille, and without a further instrument it would need legalisation of the mission’s signature. The 1968 convention removes that legalisation between the states that have ratified or acceded to it. Article 3(2) of the Apostille Convention is the clause that gives room to arrangements of this kind; it has its own entry among the key terms of this site.
Which list of states to read
Besides Türkiye, the Council of Europe chart lists Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation. Local guides may carry shorter lists. The marriage office guide of Derince Municipality, dated 24 February 2022, names the states whose missions’ documents it takes without legalisation, and Cyprus, Latvia, San Marino and Ukraine are missing from it. Where the two differ, the Council of Europe chart is the authoritative list; this site reads the convention’s participants from it.
The exemption seen from both sides
The German missions in Türkiye list the documents of Turkish diplomatic or consular missions among the papers that need neither legalisation nor an apostille in Germany. In the other direction, the Derince guide processes certificates of capacity to marry and birth certificates issued by the missions of participating states without legalisation, provided they carry the issuing authority’s signature and seal. In the French table the column for diplomatic and consular documents marks Turkish documents as exempt under this convention. What to do when an office still asks for legalisation is treated on the problem pages of this site.
What the convention leaves to translation
The 1968 convention removes a certification; it says nothing about language. The Derince guide ties the two together in its own practice: a mission document in a foreign language is processed with a Turkish translation certified by a notary. Whether other Turkish institutions state the same language requirement was not verified. A Turkish consular document presented abroad follows the translation rule of the receiving country, which that country’s authority states.