Practical guide to ensure the flow of goods in EU
The EU Commission presented today a practical guidance to ensure the flow of goods in the EU via so called « green lanes“. These green lane rules apply to ALL freight vehicles, independant on what type of good they are transporting. According to the guidance, any border crossing should not take longer than 15 minutes including (if applicable) health screenings and checks. This is good news for our sector as well and will hopefully ease the situation at inner-EU borders.
To access the guidance document, please follow this link.
Key elements are :
- Border crossing procedures at green lane border crossings should be streamlined and limited to what is strictly necessary. Checks and screening should be carried out without drivers having to leave their vehicles, and drivers themselves should undergo only minimal checks. Drivers of freight vehicles dont need to show any particular document (apart from identification and driving license and if necessary a letter from the employer)
- No freight vehicle or driver should face discrimination, irrespective of origin and destination, the driver’s nationality or the vehicle’s country of registration
- EU Member States urge to temporarily suspend all road access restrictions currently in place in their territory, such as weekend, night and sectoral bans
- The Commission recommends that Member States take action to ensure the free movement of all workers involved in international transport. In particular, rules such as travel restrictions, and mandatory quarantine of transport workers not displaying symptoms, should be waived. For example, Member States should not require that transport workers carry a doctor’s certificate to prove their good health. To ensure the safety of transport workers, enhanced hygiene and operational measures are also needed in airports, ports, railway stations and other land transport hubs
- Annex 2 includes a full list of recommendations to protect drivers from the corona-virus
Questions, please contact GME Europe, Secretary General Cecilia Luetgebrune.