The European Commission announced, on Thursday 4 June, the creation of an app called Galileo Green Lane to further reduce waiting times at the EU's internal land borders and facilitate the transport of goods disrupted by the measures taken to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12452/14).
This app uses the positioning services of Galileo, Europe's global navigation satellite system (GNSS).
“For border control authorities, the app provides a real-time visualisation of the situation at border crossings along with regular updates on the traffic flow situation. For truck and passenger car drivers, the app also provides real-time border visualisation with an EU-wide map”, the Commission detailed.
Furthermore, it explains that the app has already been tested with border police in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Spain, with more than 5,000 sets of data collected. Tests are still ongoing in France and Greece.
A pilot project was also conducted with drivers, in collaboration with the International Road Transport Union (IRU), with over 2,500 apps downloaded.
“Currently, we are working closely with the GSA and Galileo colleagues to deploy the app further”, Raluca Marian, General Delegate of IRU’s Permanent Delegation to the EU, told EUROPE. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)