Free movement of persons: signs at external border crossing points. Initiative Greece

The committee adopted the report by Gérard DEPREZ (EPP-ED, B) amending the initiative under the consultation procedure. It felt that the signs used at external border crossing points should be as clear and simple as possible. The separate lanes should therefore be marked EU or NON-EU, rather than the more complicated formulation proposed by the Hellenic Republic to take account of the Agreements which the Community has concluded with Iceland, Norway and Switzerland under which the nationals of those countries are treated as EU nationals for the purpose of crossing external borders. In order to keep things simple, the committee also proposed that, although the nationals of those countries should, as a general rule, use the lane indicated by the sign "EU", they should also be able to use the NON-EU lane. In other amendments, MEPs said that: sea borders should also be included in the scope of the provisions; where Member States deem it appropriate, the letters or words could appear in the characters of other alphabets; and there should be a degree of flexibility regarding the indications on the signs in order to enable local circumstances to be accommodated.�