WRITTEN QUESTION E-2028/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Greek customs authorities' unnecessarily lengthy procedure of collecting up EU citizens' passports at the border with Macedonia, a procedure that is also open to fraud.
Date: 2003-06-18
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Greece, North Macedonia, border control, customs formalities

C 88 E/60

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.4.2004

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(16 July 2003)

The Commission is very concerned about the difficulties faced by religious groups which wish to establish
themselves in Turkmenistan.

While the Constitution of Turkmenistan ensures religious freedom, the law implementing the Constitution
requires all religious groups to register officially and do so with the support of 500 signatures of citizens
over 18 years old. The law effectively restricts all religious activity other than Sunni Islam and the Russian
Orthodox Church.

There is at present no formal bilateral framework for discussing these matters between EU institutions and
Turkmen authorities since our Trade and Cooperation Agreement does not cover issues of human rights.

However, the Commission is working actively with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions on promoting human rights in Turkmenistan.

(2004/C 88 E/0065)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2028/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(18 June 2003)

Subject: Greek customs authorities’ unnecessarily lengthy procedure of collecting up EU citizens’ passports

at the border with Macedonia, a procedure that is also open to fraud

1.
Is the Commission aware that in trains from Greece to Skopje in Macedonia and Belgrade in Serbia
the passports of nationals of other EU Member States are collected up shortly after leaving Thessaloniki by
a person who is not recognisable as a Greek government official, and passengers are merely told that their
passports can be collected later from the police?

2.
Is the Commission also aware that at the police station in the Greek border town of Idomeni, where
the passports can be collected, nothing whatsoever is done with the passports and they are merely given
back after a waiting period?

3.
Does the Commission agree with me that maintaining a procedure, which was also in force many
years ago at this border, involves the risk of passports being collected by unauthorised persons, or of one
or more passports from the large number collected by an authorised person being lost, or of unattended
luggage left behind in the train being stolen?

Are citizens of EU Member States in fact allowed to hand over their passports to a person who is not

4.
recognisable as an authorised official or are they entitled to refuse to do so?

5. What is the point of this procedure other than the fact that requiring passengers to disembark and
wait generates customers for the duty-free shops in Idomeni station or that it delays traffic with a
neighbouring country whose name is considered undesirable?

6. What action can the EU take to speed up and normalise passports checks at this border, in particular
for EU citizens? What is the Commission doing to facilitate a solution?

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/61

Supplementary answer
given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission

(20 April 2004)

As part of its investigation into the circumstances referred to by the Honourable Member in his written
question, the Commission contacted the Greek authorities on 30 September 2003 to notify them of the
complaint and to ask them to provide the Commission with detailed information on the checks carried out
on board trains leaving Greece and entering the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at the
Idomeni border post. Having received no reply to its letter, the Commission sent a reminder to the Greek
authorities on 7 January 2004.

In two letters received on 16 and 28 January 2004 respectively the Greek authorities disputed the
Honourable Member’s version of events and stated that checks at the Idomeni border post and on the train
were carried out in accordance with the rules laid down in the Common Manual. The Greek authorities
stressed that the checks were carried out on the train in the course of the journey, that all travel
documents were checked and that documents were stamped in accordance with the rules (in respect of
Community nationals amongst others, point 2.1.1 of the Common Manual states that documents should
not be stamped).

In particular, according to the information provided, on both the trains serving this route each day, checks
are carried out on board the train by uniformed police officers who check passengers individually and
collect travel documents. In addition to these checks by uniformed police officers, another police officer
from the same department but in plain clothes is responsible for general inspection and surveillance duties
on the train. This officer wears his departmental badge on the outside left pocket of his shirt.

With regard to the complaint, the Greek authorities note that no instance has been reported of a specific
request being made to a plain clothes officer carrying out checks to produce his identity.

As regards the conditions in which travel documents are collected, the Greek authorities refer to the less
rigorous checks at external borders indicated in the Common Manual for persons travelling in sleeper or
couchette compartments. For those persons, the Common Manual states (point 3.2.4) that the documents
enabling them to cross the border shall normally be checked by the attendant, provided that he has
collected those documents in compliance with the rules applicable to him and that he keeps them available
for checks.

As regards the length of checks, the Greek authorities maintain that, as a rule,
it does not exceed
30 seconds for Community nationals and one minute for third-country nationals; however, they do not
deny the possibility of delays, particularly during the summer, as a result of the significant increase in rail
traffic.

On the basis of the clarifications provided by the Greek authorities on the arrangements for checks on the
train and in the absence of other specific details on travel arrangements, the Commission does not
consider that the Greek authorities have failed to apply the Community rules on checks at external borders
correctly in the case referred to by the Honourable Member.

(2004/C 88 E/0066)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2055/03

by Bartho Pronk (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(20 June 2003)

Subject: Trade union rights for police officers in Latvia

1.

Is it true that police officers in Latvia are not entitled to form a trade union?

Is not that situation in breach of ILO Conventions, the Council of Europe’s Social Charter and the EU

2.
Charter of Fundamental Rights?

Has the Commission discussed this situation with the Latvian Government? If not, why not? If so,

3.
what was the outcome of the discussion?

4. Why has the Commission not referred to this issue in the annual progress reports?