A vessel used for producing an external electrode fluorescent lamp which has a structure wherein an electrode is formed on the external surface is characterized by being composed of a glass having a dielectric loss tangent of not more than 0.02 at 40 KHz and 250 DEG C and a strain point of not more than 650 DEG C. Specifically, the glass is composed of an aluminoborosilicate glass having a chemical composition including, in mass percent, SiO2: 35-65%, B2O3: 0.1-25%, Al2O3: 2-20% and Li2O + Na2O + K2O: 0.1-5%, or a chemical composition including, in mass percent, SiO2: 35-65%, B2O3: 0.1-25%, Al2O3: 2-12.5% and Li2O + Na2O + K2O: from 0% to less than 0.1%.