International green automobile insurance card

Recommendation 606 (1970)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 19 September 1970 (11th Sitting) (see Doc. 2804, report of the Commutee on Economic Affairs and Development). Text adopted by the Assembly on 19 September 1970 (11th Sitting).

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Conscious of the ever-increasing frequency and gravity of traffic delays and congestion at frontier crossing-points in Europe, particularly during peak holiday traffic periods, and believing that urgent measures are called for if this situation is not to become even more intolerable in the near future with the continuing increase in motor traffic;

2. Aware that such delays and congestion are aggravated above ail by the present practice of meticulously checking the international certificate of motor insurance – the so-called "Green Card" – at frontiers;

3. Considering however that it is vital to ensure that persons suffering injury or damage through the fault of a foreign motorist driving in a country other than his own shall be sure of actually recovering any damages they are awarded in the courts of that country;

4. Recognising that the Green Card system, when it was introduced in 1953, constituted an important step forward in simplifying the formalities previously required relating to compulsory third party insurance when travelling abroad, but convinced that the subsequent development of international motor traffic necessitates still further simplification;

5. Believing that in the longer term the ideal to be aimed at should be that a motorist's own national insurance against third party risks should automatically cover him for driving in ail countries of Western Europe; conscious however, for reasons set out in the report of its Committee on Economic Affairs and Development (Doc. 2804), that it is unlikely that such a general solution can be arrived at in time to cope with the rapidly increasing congestion at frontier crossing points,

6. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite the governments of member States to take appropriate measures with a view to ensuring:

a that, in the case of those member States which do not at present have compulsory third party motor insurance, such a system of insurance be introduced at the earliest possible moment;

b that every effort be made to extend the number of bilateral or multilateral arrangements between member governments themselves (or between their respective national Bureaux of motor insurers), rendering unnecessary the checking of Green Cards of vehicles registered in their respective countries at their common frontiers;

c that, in the case of those member States already having compulsory third party motor insurance, but not having a guarantee fund or other equivalent arrangements of the nature specified in Article 9 of the 1959 European Convention on Compulsory Insurance against Civil Liability in respect of Motor Vehicles, such arrangements be urgently introduced whether or not the governments concerned are, or propose to become, signatories of the Convention;

d that, in the case of those member States where a guarantee fund (or other equivalent arrangements) already exist, their frontier authorities be authorised to resort to sample checking of the Green Cards relating to vehicles registered in another country with which neither the aforesaid countries nor the national Bureaux set up by their motor insurers have a bilateral or multilateral agreement rendering unnecessary the checking of Green Cards relating to vehicles registered in their respective countries;

e that, in the case of those member States which do not at present have a guarantee fund (or other equivalent arrangements), the frontier authorities concerned be authorised to resort to sample checking of Green Cards once a guarantee fund (or other equivalent arrangements) have been introduced in their country.