Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1931/2006 as regards the inclusion of the Kaliningrad area and certain Polish administrative districts in the eligible border area

It is in the interest of the enlarged European Union to ensure that the borders with its neighbours are no barriers to trade, social and cultural interchange or regional cooperation with neighbouring countries.

Therefore, the Council and the European Parliament adopted in 2006 a Regulation laying down rules on local border traffic at the external land borders of the Member States ("Local Border Traffic Regulation") which allows derogating, for persons living in a border area, from the general rules on border checks set out in the Schengen Borders Code.

The Regulation authorises Member States to conclude bilateral agreements with neighbouring non-EU countries, provided these agreements fully comply with the parameters set by the Regulation.

In February 2011, the Commission concluded in its second report that the local border traffic regime makes life significantly easier for people living near the external land borders, while at the same time there is little evidence that the regime is being abused.

The Commission also stated that given the specific position of Kaliningrad - the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation with a population of almost one million inhabitants became the only enclave within the EU as a consequence of the 2004 EU enlargement - an amendment of the Local Border Traffic Regulation may be justified.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)461: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:461:FIN

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