Simplification of frontier formalities for private motor vehicles

Recommendation 59 (1954)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

This Recommendation was adopted by the Assembly at its 4th Sitting on 24th May, 1954 (seeDoc. 240, Report of the Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions).

The Assembly,

Having given further consideration to the motion tabled by the late M. Jacini conceming thesimplification of frontier formalities for travellers Doc. 98 (1951) ;

Desiring to facilitate to the greatest extent possible the development of international touring withinthe Member States of the Council of Europe ;

Having taken cognizance of the Report of the Scandinavian Interparliamentary Committee on thesimplification of frontier formalities for private motor vehicles and of the work carried out under theauspices of the United Nations in this field ;

Considering that, as in the case of the Scandinavian countries, it should be possible to achieve furtherprogress towards the abolition of unnecessary formalities as between Member States of the Councilof Europe and that such improvements should not be regarded as duplication of effort but as a step inthe direction of the United Nations target ;

Having regard to the Report of the Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions (Doc. 240),which is hereby transmitted to the Committee of Ministers, so that the present recommendation maybe examined in the light of that Report,

Recommends to the Committee of Ministers that they should give early consideration to thefollowing questions and that specific information on the action taken by them to implement thisrecommendation as well as a first opinion on it should be included in the next Report orsupplementary Report of the Committee of Ministers to the Consultative Assembly ;

SECTION A

Considering that among the Member States of the Council of Europe only Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden have so far deposited their instruments ofratification of or accession to the Convention on Road Traffic signed at Geneva on 19th September,1949 ;

Having noted, in particular, that Article 24 of this Convention "allows drivers holding nationaldriving licences to drive without further examination in the countries of ail contracting States", butthat this may be made subject to certain conditions,

Recommends to the Committee of Ministers :

1 that those Members of the Council of Europe which have signed but not ratified the Convention onRoad Traffic signed at Geneva on 19th September, 1949, namely Denmark, Norway and the UnitedKingdom, should deposit their instruments of ratification without further delay, and that otherMember States which are not at present bound by that Convention, namely Iceland, Ireland, theGerman Federal Republic and Turkey should accede to it as soon as possible ;

2 that those Member States which have not yet done so should forthwith recognise withoutreservation the validity of driving licences issued by other Member States to persons principallyresident in the territories of these latter States ;

SECTION B

Having noted that the agreement signed at Geneva on 16th June, 1949, providing inter alia for theprovisional application of the draft international customs convention on touring prepared by theEconomic Commission for Europe, has only corne into force as between the following MemberStates of the Council of Europe : Denmark, France, the German Federal Republic, Italy, theNetherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom ;

Recording its view that this Recommendation in no way affects its main proposals for the ultimateabolition and immediate modification of customs documents as outlined in Section C of thisRecommendation,

Recommends to the Committee of Ministers that those Members of the Council of Europe whichhave signed but not ratified the agreement of 16th June, 1949 providing, inter alia, for the provisionalapplication of the draft International Customs Convention on Touring, namely, Belgium andLuxembourg, should deposit their instruments of ratification, and that other Member States which arenot at present bound by the agreement, namely, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Turkey should accede toit as soon as possible ;

SECTION C

Having examined various means of achieving progress towards further simplification and, inparticular, certain customs documents at present in use in certain Member countries, namely theFranco-Italian diptyque and the laisser-passer which is available to foreign motoriste enteringAustria, France, the German Federal Republic, Italy and Switzerland, both of which represent commendable attempts at making the crossing of frontiers easier ;

Noting that in their Report on the simplification of frontier formalities for motor vehicles theScandinavian Interparliamentary Committee has recommended the complete abolition of customsdocuments in the case of the temporary importation of private motor vehicles as betweenScandinavian countries [(1) In this recommendation, the word 'Scandinavian' is deemed to include Denmark, Finland,Norway and Sweden.]and that formalities at frontiers between them should henceforth be limitedto an occasional check of the motor vehicles national registration papers and/or of the driversdomestic driving licence, and that the first part of these proposais has already been impleniented inDenrmark ;

Noting that the same procedure obtains in the case of motor traffic between Canada and the UnitedStates ;

Recalling that, as between the Scandinavian countries, the present practice is that no financialguarantee is required in the case of the temporary importation of private motor vehicles and that,except in Denmark where even this requirement has been abolished, a visiting motorist from anotherScandinavian country is merely required to make a personal declaration in writing whereby heundertakes, inter alia, to re-export his vehicle from the country in question within the scheduled timelimit or to pay the import duties and taxes winch have become due,

Recommends to the Committee of Ministers :

1 that Member States of the Council of Europe should dispense with their present requirement of afinancial guarantee in the case of the temporary importation of private motor vehicles by touristsprincipally resident in other Member countries ;

2 that they should adopt as the ultimate objective of the Members of the Council of Europe, to beachieved as soon as possible, the complete abolition of customs documents in the case of thetemporary importation of private motor vehicles by tourists from other Member States, and thatformalities at frentiers should eventually be limited to an occasional check of the motor vehicle'snational registration papers and of the driver's domestic driving licence, to be carried out, so far aspossible, only at the point of entry into a Member State ;

3 that, as an intermediate atep towards the achievement of this purpose, Member States which feelunable at present to abolish completely the customs documents mentioned in the preceding paragraphshould introduce, for the use of visiting motorists principally resident in other Member States, aEuropean temporary importation paper similar to the Scandinavian temporary importation paper, thatis to say not requiring a financial guarantee, issued free of charge through customs offices andmotoring organisations and at frontier posta, valid for one or for several journeys and for at leastthree months, renewable up to one year (see description of the Scandinavian temporary importationpaper in paragraphs 53-59 of the Report of the Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions) ;

4 that, after the introduction of the European temporary importation paper, any check carried out onreturn to a motorist's country of principal residence in respect of a temporarily exported motor vehicleshould be based solely on the national registration papers of the motor vehicle ;

5 that a conference to discuss the above-mentioned measures be convened as soon as possible withinthe framework of the Council of Europe and that, in addition to the Members of the Council ofEurope and a delegation from the Consultative Assembly, the following countries should be invitedto participate in it, subject to their having previously indicated that they are in sympathy with theserecommendations : Austria, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Yugoslavia ;

SECTION D

Having regard to the international scheme for the insurance of motorists against third-party risksworked out under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Europe, of which the underlyingprinciple is the recognition, internationally, of domestic insurance policies ;

Considering that this scheme is now operating in ail Member States of the Council of Europe exceptIceland, Greece and Turkey ;

Considering, furthermore, that the introduction of compulsory insurance against third-party risks inthose Member States of the Council of Europe where such insurance is not at present required wouldbe another important step towards making motoring easier between these countries,

Recommends to the Committee of Ministers :

1 that Iceland, which is one of the countries where insurance against third party risks is compulsory,should accept the international motor insurance card (green card), and that the Governments ofGreece and Turkey should take appropriate steps to ensure that motor insurance companies can issueinternational motor insurance earls to policy-holders for foreign travel ;

2 that Member States where insurance against third-party risks is not at present compulsory shouldgive consideration to the possibility of making such insurance compulsory.