Simplification of passport, customs and currency formalities
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- This Recommendation
was adopted by the Assembly at its twenty-first Silting, on 23rd
September, 1953 (see Doc. 201,
Report of the Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions).
- Thesaurus
The Assembly,
Having considered the Motion tabled by the late Count Jacini
on the simplification of frontier formalities for travellers, Doc. 98 (1951);
Having taken cognisance of the three reports of the Scandinavian
Interparliamentary Committee on the simplification of passport,
customs and currency formalities;
Having given careful consideration to the work of the United
Nations on the subject of passports and frontier formalities in
order that there should be no overlapping or duplication of effort;
Convinced that it is in the interests of all the Member States
of the Council of Europe to facilitate the movement of nationals
of Member States in order to promote greater understanding and good
will between them;
Believing that frontier formalities as at present carried
out cause unnecessary trouble and delay;
Having regard to the Report of the Committee on Legal and
Administrative Questions, Doc.
201, which is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers
so that the present Recommendation may be examined in the light of
this Report;
SECTION A
Visas
Having noted that the Resolution adopted by the Committee
of Ministers at its Tenth Session, on the initiative of the Assembly,
concerning the desirability of abolishing visas for travel between
all Member States of the Council of Europe, has not yet been fully
implemented,
1. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers
a that, wherever they are still required,
visas should be completely abolished as soon as possible for travel between
all member countries of the Council of Europe;
b that, in cases where special circumstances make it particularly
difficult for visas to be completely abolished on a reciprocal basis,
the possibility should be envisaged of action being taken on a unilateral basis
and that in any case transit visas should be dispensed with and
entry visas should be issued without charge;
c that immediate consideration he given to the possibility
of abolishing the visa requirement for travel as between Member
States of the Council of Europe and certain non-Member States, namely
Austria, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Yugoslavia;
SECTION
Passport Control
Convinced that the ultimate objective of the Member States
of the Council of Europe must be the complete abolition of passports
for the purpose of travel between Member States;
Recalling that this would ha no more than a partial return
to the practice of free movement which existed before 1914 in virtually
the whole of Europe;
Welcoming the arrangements obtaining as between the Scandinavian
states whereby persons travelling from one country to another are no longer required to give proof
of their identity on crossing the borders between these countries,
and as between Ireland and the United Kingdom, whereby, in addition,
aliens reaching the United Kingdom from abroad through the Republic
of Ireland arc not interviewed again by Immigration Officers on
arrival in the United Kingdom and aliens travelling to the Republic
of Ireland via the United Kingdom are seen by British Immigration
Officers and not on arrival in the territory of the Republic of
Ireland,
2. Recommends to the Committee of. Ministers
a that similar arrangements should
be made among other groups
of States, for example the members of Uniscan (Denmark, Norway,
Sweden and the United Kingdom) to which Iceland, Ireland and possibly Finland
might be added, and the members of the European Coal and Steel Community
(Belgium, France, the German Federal Republic, Italy, Luxembourg
and the Netherlands), ta which the United Kingdom and possibly other
Member States of the Council of Europe might be added, it being understood
that there are other possible combinations and that it is intended
that the creation of these regional passport unions should, in view
of their interlocking element, eventually lead to the passport requirement
for travel in ail Member States of the Council of Europe;
b that, as an intermediate step towards the achievement
of this purpose, groups of neighbouring countries, for example,
those named abode, should waive, the passport requirement for nationals
of Members of the groups, and that. Identity cards at present issued
by the competent national administrative authorities of Member States
for domestic purposes bearing a photograph (for example, national
identity cards, certificates of nationality valid as travel documents,
electoral cards, driving licences, national health cards, social
security cards, passes entitling holder to free railway travel, etc.), should be recognised by other
Member States as documents providing a satisfactory means of identification;
SECTION C
Collective travel documents
Having given consideration to the arrangement concluded by
the Brussels Treaty Powers-(Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands
and the United Kingdom) concerning collective travel documents for
young persons which came into force on 1st April, 1952;
Believing that young people from all Member States of the
Council of Europe should be able to travel on collective travel
documents and that the form and contents of these should be standardised;
Recording its view that this recommendation in no way affects
its main proposal for the ultimate abolition of passports for travel
within the Member States of the Council of Europe and that it is
a step towards that end,
3. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers :
a that Members of the Council of
Europe which are not Members of the Brussels Treaty Organisation should
be invited to adhere to the arrangement concerning collective passports
for young persons which came into force on 1st April, 1952;
b that consideration be given to the possibility of extending
the use of collective travel documents to persons over the age of
18 or 21, as the case may be, and that, so far as possible, there
should be no limitation to the kind of visits for which collective
travel documents are issued;
SECTION D
Customs Control
Believing that there is value in defining more precisely what
categories of goods are included within the term " personal effects
", so that tourists may know exactly which articles they are entitled
to carry free of duty;
Considering, moreover, that it is desirable to relax current
regulations in order that travellers may be granted increased facilities
for carrying articles other than personal effects and personal food
supplies;
Considering, furthermore, that quantitative limits must still
remain in respect of certain commodities which are revenue-producing
in a high degree;
Being of opinion, finally, that if the foregoing proposals
were adopted it should be possible to modernise the actual way in
which customs control is carried out at the present time,
4. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers :
a that all Member States of the Council
of Europe should adopt regulations enabling all travellers, including their
nationals, to import and export the following articles free of customs
and other duties without special import and export permits, if they
are part of the personal effects of the traveller and if they are
intended solely for his personal use :
i articles of clothing, bedding, and other articles for
personal use, such as watches, jewellery, toilet articles, etc.;
ii other small belongings, such as binoculars, cameras, and
small cinematograph cameras, together with developed and undeveloped
films and plates, portable musical instruments, gramophones (including
a reasonable number of records) wireless receiving sets and portable typewriters;
iii bicycles, camping equipment and sports articles (for example,
sporting guns and other shooting equipment, fishing tackle, skis,
tennis rackets, canoes and similar small crafts without engines, including
collapsible boats);
iv perambulators and invalid chairs;
v articles of clothing for personal use acquired abroad
which, having regard to their quantity and value and to the traveller's
length of stay abroad, can be regarded as personal effects;
b that persons travelling as tourists should be allowed
to import into all Member States, including their countries of origin,
free of customs and other duties and without import licence, apart
from personal effects, articles purchased abroad of a total value
of not more than the equivalent of 20 U.S. dollars (this amount
to be raised as soon as circumstances permit to 50 dollars) calculated
on the basis of retail prices of such goods in the country of purchase,
on condition that they are carried on the traveller's person or
in the luggage accompanying the traveller at the point of entry,
provided that from their volume and composition it is clear that
the goods so imported are not intended for sale but solely for personal use
or consumption, and provided also that the import of these goods
does not contravene existing national regulations;
c that the following quantities should become minimum standards
in all Member States :
- 200
cigarettes or 250 grammes of tobacco, or 25 cigars or lesser quantities
of each in relative proportions;
- 2 litres of wines and spirits, of which not more than
one litre may be spirits;
- 1/2 litre (one pint) of toilet water, of which not more
than one-eight of a litre (a quarter of a pint) may be perfumed
spirits;
d that the present system of customs control should be modified
and replaced by a system of occasional checks, if possible only
at the point of entry;
SECTION E
Currency Control
Considering that it is not at present possible to establish
uniform currency regulations in all Member States of the Council
of Europe but that, nevertheless, certain improvements can be effected,
5. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers :
a that all Member States of the Council
of Europe should make the most generous possible allocation of currency
for travel between the member countries of the Council of Europe;
b that they should authorise the import and export by all
travellers of banknotes up to the value of at least 10 pounds sterling
in their own currency;
c that the currency control, insofar as it is considered
necessary by Member States, should be exercised by the simplest
means and least inconvenient to travellers, for example through
their banks;
d that regular currency control at frontiers should be discontinued
and replaced by occasional checks similar to those suggested in
the case of customs control;
SECTION F
International Instruments
Having taken note of the recommendations of the 1947 Conference
of Experts on Passports and Frontier Formalities and of the Convention
to facilitate the crossing of frontiers for passengers and baggage
carried by rail, signed in Geneva on the 1st January, 1952,
6. Recommends to the Committee of Ministers :
a that steps should be taken to ensure
that those Members of the Council of Europe which did not take part
in the 1947 Conference are, nevertheless, invited to comply with
its recommendations; and
b that the Members of the Council of Europe who have signed
but not ratified the 1952 Convention should deposit their instrument
of ratification as soon as possible and that those who have not
signed this Convention but are able to do so should be invited to
accede to it forthwith.
