Brussels, 01/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is to submit to the Council two proposals intended to facilitate daily border traffic from May 2004 between Member States and their neighbours as we pointed out earlier (yesterday's EUROPE, p.4). The first proposal is above all intended to allow the populations of the new Member States to keep their traditional contacts with their neighbours outside the EU without excessive red-tape. Pending integration by the new members into the Schengen system and the lifting of the EU's internal borders, the second proposal must make it possible to facilitate their relations with the Fifteen, the Commission says.
With a first proposal of regulation, the Commission suggests that nationals of third countries living near the EU's external borders and crossing these borders very regularly may benefit from a special visa. All the neighbours of the ten new Member States are concerned by this new visa, except Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia, whose nationals already do not have to have a visa. The latter could enjoy special advantages, such as the right to cross the border with an identity card instead of a passport.
Marked with the letter L and valid for at least one year, this visa could be granted (at little or no charge) to those who cross the border regularly, mainly for family reasons. The Member States will have no obligation to foresee such provisions: the Commission proposes a framework which will then be set out in detail through the signing of bilateral agreements between member and third countries. However, everything points to the new Member States using this very often. During accession talks, they had requested such provisions since their border economy depends largely on trade with third countries. Poland, especially, has very long borders with Ukraine and Belarus. Greece, for its border with Turkey, and Finland with Russia, may also decide to facilitate local trade in the same way. The Commission proposes that these facilitated visas should be granted only to those countries that agree to do the same for the border nationals of Member States.
This special visa will provide limited access in the border Member State and no access to the other Member States. Also, the area concerned will be strictly limited to certain areas or towns. The Commission proposes that this access zone, to be defined by the agreement between the Member State and its neighbour, may under no circumstances exceed 50 km and that the special visa may only be granted to persons living for at least one year in the border area. The duration of validity (between one and five years) of the "L" visa will be decided by bilateral agreement. The L visa will only allow a maximum of three months for residence per term, each trip being no more than 7 consecutive days. Such is the Commission proposal on immigration for economic motives currently on the Council table, that should settle this issue. The European Commission assures that the L visa will provide all the security guarantees of the Schengen visa.
In addition to the special visa, the Commission proposes facilitating crossings with practical provisions at borders: - a permanent distinct line or crossing point outside the usual zone at specific times. Passports should be stamped, for reducing the time it takes to cross the border, which could pose problems when checking that those holding the special L visa do not exceed the duration limits. The response given to the Commission on this is that controls will above all be operated upstream, at the time when this special visa is granted, and that the persons concerned will then be considered as behaving in "good faith".
The aim of the second proposal is to tackle the specific case of third-country nationals residing in the new Member States. The accession countries will become members of the European Union on 1 May 2004, but they will not yet be members of the Schengen area. Border controls will therefore be kept in place, and nationals of non-member countries of the European Union residing in the territory of a new Member State, and who wish to enter another Member State regularly, will still need to apply for a visa. The Commission proposes that those who live in a border area should be able to benefit from a special "L" visa. As for the first regulation, the new Member States will be able to provide to special border corridors, or authorise passage outside of peak hours and habitual hours. These kind of facilities can, of course, be extended to European Union nationals.