WRITTEN QUESTION E-3822/00 by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council. The Nordic Passport Union and Article 45 of the Schengen Convention.
Date: 2000-12-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU national, Northern Europe, Schengen Agreement, foreign national, hotel industry, passport

21.8.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 235 E/23

Meanwhile, the Commission has identified a limited number of difficulties with existing Directive 97/66/EC
where a certain lack of technology neutrality of some of the provisions threatens to cause different levels
of data protection depending on the type of electronic communication service that is used. As the
Commission is committed to ensuring a high level of data protection within the Information Society, it
sees no reason to delay resolving these problems.

(2001/C 235 E/027)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3822/00

by Jens-Peter Bonde (EDD) to the Council

(7 December 2000)

Subject: The Nordic Passport Union and Article 45 of the Schengen Convention

Will the Nordic Passport Union be undermined by Article 45 of the Schengen Convention which requires
all participating countries to ensure that all hotels, campsites, hostels and other overnight accommodation
register all foreign guests and require them to show valid papers?

In other words: will the Schengen Convention mean that Danish citizens, for example, will have to take
their passports to Sweden if they wished to stay overnight, thus changing the rules curently applying under
the Nordic Passport Union?

Reply

(7 May 2001)

Under the terms of the Nordic Passport Union, nationals of the Nordic countries are entitled to travel
within the territory of the Nordic countries without being required to produce a passport.

The accession agreements of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of
Sweden to the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement and the agreement between the Council
of the European Union, the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Iceland on the association of those
two countries with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis include
a provision whereby those agreements should (cid:145)not prejudice the cooperation within the framework of the
Nordic Passport Union, in so far as such cooperation does not conflict with, or impede(cid:146), the application of
the agreements (1).

Under Article 45(1)(a), Title III, Chapter 1, on police cooperation, of the Schengen Convention, the
Contracting Parties undertake to adopt the necessary measures in order to ensure that the managers of
establishments providing accommodation or their agents see to it that aliens accommodated therein,
including nationals of the other Contracting Parties and those of other Member States of the European
Communities, with the exception of accompanying spouses or accompanying minors, personally complete
and sign registration forms and confirm their identity by producing a valid identity document.

The application of the Schengen acquis by the Nordic countries neither conflicts with nor impedes the
Nordic Passport Union. When the acquis is implemented by the Nordic countries (as from 25 March 2001),
nationals of those countries will still be entitled to travel within the territory of the Nordic countries and
stay overnight at hotels, camp sites etc. without being required to produce a passport.

However, the manager of an establishment providing accommodation or his employee is required to
ensure that nationals of other Contracting Parties personally complete and sign declaration forms and
confirm their identity by producing a valid identity document,
in accordance with Article 45 of the
Schengen Convention.

(1) See OJ L 239, 22.9.2000, p. 115 et seq. and OJ L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 36 et seq.