CELEX: 51984PC0749
Language: en
Date: 1985-01-24
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE EASING OF CONTROLS AND FORMALITIES APPLICABLE TO NATIONALS OF THE MEMBER STATES WHEN CROSSING INTRA-COMMUNITY BORDERS

19.2.85                              Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 47/5
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                               COMMISSION
               Proposal for a Council Directive on the easing of controls and formalities applicable to
                        nationals of the Member States when crossing intra-Community borders
                                                    COM(84) 749 final
                            (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 23 January 1985)
                                                       (85/C 47/06)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                      Whereas any measure in the direction of bringing
COMMUNITIES,                                                     into effect a Europe of the people corresponds to a
                                                                 real need expressed in particular by the European
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                     Parliament on numerous occasions;
European Economic Community, and in particular
Article 100 thereof,                                             Whereas Article 3 (c) of the Treaty stipulates that the
                                                                 activities of the Community shall include the
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               abolition, as between Member States, of obstacles to
                                                                 freedom of movement for persons; whereas
                                                                 agreements already exist between certain Member
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-                States in the field of abolition of border controls;
liament,
                                                                 Whereas in spite of the limits which remain in
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                 existence for tax-free allowances for travellers, the
Social Committee,                                                amount of these allowances and the degree of
                                                                 integration already realized in the Community no
Whereas it is vitally necessary that the Community               longer justify that controls on goods carried by
should respond to the expectations of the peoples of             travellers which take place at borders within the
Europe by adopting measures to enhance and                       Community should be of the same nature or the same
promote its ideal and image in the minds of its                  intensity as those carried out at borders with third
inhabitants;                                                     countries;
Whereas, on 23 June 1981, the representatives of the             Whereas the establishment of a rule of free passage
Governments of the Member States of the European                 for Member State nationals with the possibility,
Communities, meeting within the Council, adopted a               where necessary and in addition to spot checks, of
resolution considering that the establishment of a               more stringent controls of a temporary nature in
passport of uniform design is likely to facilitate the           specific and exceptional cases, in particular for
movement of nationals of the Member States;                      security reasons, does not preclude the protection of
                                                                 the legitimate interests of the Member States with
Whereas, on 7 June 1984, the Council and the rep-                regard to internal security matters;
resentatives of the Governments of the Member
States of the European Communities, meeting within               Whereas police and customs controls at intra-
the Council, adopted a resolution on the easing of               Community borders should be at the same level, and
border controls on persons;                                      as low a level as possible, whatever the mode of
                                                                 transport used;
Whereas at its meeting in Fontainebleau on 25 and 26
June 1984 the European Council, concerned about                  Whereas the total abolition of the controls and
this subject, decided in particular to set itself the goal       formalities in question requires the achievement, in
of abolishing all police and customs formalities at              parallel, of certain basic preconditions, such as the
intra-Community borders for the movement of                      harmonization of legislation concerning foreigners
persons, and requested the Council and the Member                and of policy matters connected with issuing visas,
States to reach a result on the matter before the end            the strengthening of cooperation in matters of public
of the first half of 1985;                                       security, or further fiscal harmonization; whereas in
 ---pagebreak--- No C 47/6                            Official Journal of the European Communities                               19.2.85
the interim period until the controls and formalities in                                  Article 4
question have been completely eliminated, it is
                                                                This Directive shall not prevent Member States from:
possible to carry out a policy of progressive
elimination, by, at the same time, ensuring closer
cooperation between the competent authorities of the
                                                                     carrying out spot checks on Member State
Member States and an intensification of controls on
                                                                     nationals fulfilling the conditions referred to in
persons at the Community's external frontiers;
                                                                     Article 2 (1), in so far as such spot checks, to be
                                                                     carried out either at the border crossing point or
Whereas the Commission and the Member States                         within a frontier zone of 15 kilometers from the
must collaborate closely in the introduction of                      border, measured as the crow flies, shall affect
measures to facilitate the realization of the objectives             only a minimal proportion of persons for each
sought by this Directive and, in a second stage, in                  border crossing point between one Member State
seeking means of enabling the controls relating to the               and another;
movement of persons to be concentrated at the
external frontiers of the Community, so that all
controls or formalities concerning both persons and                  carrying out controls of a temporary nature in
goods carried by persons should then be abolished at                 exceptional and specific cases, in particular for
 intra-Community borders,                                            security purposes.
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                                               TITLE II
                                                                                Crossing of borders by road
                          TITLE I
                          General
                                                                                          Article 5
                                                                Where persons present themselves at the border
                          Article 1                             between two Member States on board private
This Directive lays down the conditions for easing the          vehicles, the principle of free passage referred to in
 controls and formalities to which nationals of the             Article 3 shall permit the said vehicle to cross the
 Member States may be subjected at intra-Community               border at a reduced speed in order to enable the
borders.                                                         authorities responsible for the controls to carry out a
                                                                 simple visual check without requiring the vehicle to
                                                                 stop, except in specific cases.
                          Article 2
 1.    The facilities provided for in this Directive apply
 to Member State nationals crossing an intra-                                             Article 6
 Community border who comply with the provisions                 In order to facilitate the application of Article 5 by
 concerning both the movement of persons and the                 the competent authorities, Member State nationals
 movement of goods and in particular as regards the              fulfilling the conditions referred to in Article 2 (1)
 value or quantities of goods admitted free of taxes.            may present, in particular by affixing it to the
                                                                 windscreen of their vehicle, a disc measuring at least
                                                                 8 centimetres in diameter bearing the letter E on a
 2.    Within the meaning of this Directive and except
                                                                 green background.
 where otherwise specified, controls and formalities
 mean all the controls and formalities applicable to the
 intra-Community movement of persons and goods
                                                                 The use of this disc shall be equivalent to a
 carried by them, excluding any carriage of a
                                                                 declaration by the driver of the vehicle that all the
 commercial nature.
                                                                 persons transported in that vehicle are Member State
                                                                 nationals and comply with the conditions referred to
                                                                 in Article 2 ( 1 ) .
                          Article 3
 Member States shall take the measures necessary for
 the controls and formalities applicable to Member                                        Article 7
 State nationals fulfilling the conditions referred to in
 Article 2 (1) and presenting themselves at the border           Member States shall make all necessary arrangements
 between two Member States to be operated according              so that in the event of a vehicle being subjected to
 to the principle of free passage, whatever the mode of          controls, the passage of the following vehicles is not
 transport used.                                                 hampered.
 ---pagebreak--- 19.2.85                              Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 47/7
                         Article 8                                                      TITLE IV
Member States shall make all arrangements so that               Border crossing on board international trains and
wherever technically possible there shall be only one                                    coaches
checkpoint for the two adjacent Member States in                                        Article 11
each direction of traffic.
                                                                1.     When private individuals cross a border between
                                                                two Member States on board international trains or
                         TITLE III                              coaches, the principle of free passage referred to in
           Border crossing at airports and ports                Article 3 shall allow them to cross the said border
                                                                without being controlled.
                         Article 9                              2.     In order to facilitate the application of
                                                                paragraph 1 by the competent authorities, the mere
1.     Where persons present themselves at an airport           presentation, shut, by the person concerned, at his
or port on arrival in another Member State, the                 own initiative, of his passport or national identity
principle of free passage referred to in Article 3 shall        card, issued by a Member State, shall, in the absence
allow them to cross the border without controls.                of any other indication by the person concerned, be
                                                                equivalent to a declaration that he is a Member State
2.     In order to facilitate the application of                national and fulfils the conditions laid down in
paragraph 1 the Member States shall, at airports and            Article 2 (1).
ports open to international passenger traffic and
having a certain level of traffic, establish channels                                    TITLE V
designated by green or red signs.
                                                                                     Final provisions
3.     In cases where the controls on the movement of                                   Article 12
persons and those on the movement of goods carried
by those persons do not take place simultaneously,              This Directive shall not preclude the application of
the selection of a green channel as referred to in              more favourable provisions for Member State
paragraph 2 shall be equivalent to a declaration by             nationals, in particular those laid down in the
the person concerned that:                                      framework of frontier traffic or resulting from
                                                                agreements between certain Member States.
— he is a Member State national, if the channel
     concerns the movement of persons,                                                  Article 13
                                                                Member States shall provide the Commission with all
— he fulfils the conditions laid down in Article 2 ( 1 ) ,
                                                                information necessary to enable the latter to present a
     if the channel concerns the movement of goods
                                                                report to the Council every two years, the first no
     carried by those persons.
                                                                later than 1 July 1987, on the application of this
                                                                Directive with a view to examining the means of
4.     In cases where the controls referred to in
                                                                achieving total abolition of all controls at intra-
paragraph 3 take place simultaneously, the selection
                                                                Community borders on Member State nationals
of a green channel as referred to in paragraph 2 shall
                                                                fulfilling the conditions laid down in Article 2 ( 1 ) .
be equivalent to a declaration by the person
concerned that he is a Member State national and                                        Article 14
fulfils the conditions laid down in Article 2(1).
                                                                Member States shall, after consultation with the
                                                                Commission, bring into force the provisions laid
                         Article 10                             down by law, regulation or administrative action
Where there are no green or red channels as referred            necessary to comply with this Directive by 1 July
to in Article 9 (2), the mere presentation, shut, by the        1985 at the latest.
person concerned, at his own initiative, of his                 Each Member State shall send to the Commission the
passport or national identity card issued by a Member           text of the provisions it adopts for the purpose of
State shall, in the absence of any other indication by          applying this Directive.
the person concerned, be equivalent to a declaration
                                                                                        Article 15
that he is a Member State national and fulfils the
conditions laid down in Article 2(1).                           This Directive is addressed to the Member States.