Movement of persons: local border traffic, trade interchange and crossing regime at external land borders of the Member States

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Carmen CERDEIRA MORTERERO (PES, E) and made some amendments to the Commission proposal: - a new Article specified that the Regulation did not affect the provisions of the final Act of the Agreement on the Accession of Spain to the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 in respect of the towns of Ceuta and Melilla; - the definition of transfrontier workers is amended to mean third-country nationals who regularly return to the border area of the neighbouring country while pursuing their economic activities, each day or at least once every two weeks, rather than once every week; - residents not requiring a visa may stay in the border area of a neighbouring Member State for up to fourteen consecutive days, rather than seven; - Member State authorities may withdraw documents authorising local border traffic if the holder seriously breaches national legislation or the rules laid down in this Regulation; - Member States may deviate from the 50 km territorial validity rule if this is justified and the neighbouring state agrees; - certain time limits do not apply to pupils, students or those engaged in vocational training, non-remunerated training or voluntary service; - the crossing of the border will be controlled by electronic or magnetic means, so as to ensure compliance with authorised time-limits. In the absence of such measures, until they are introduced, entry and exit stamps shall be affixed on the travel documents of border residents crossing the external land border of a Member State for the purpose of local border traffic; - Parliament deleted the provision whereby residents might be authorised to cross their border at places other than authorised border crossing points and outside the fixed hours.�