Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Report on the implementation and functioning of Regulation (EU) No 1342/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1931/2006 as regards the inclusion of the Kaliningrad oblast and certain Polish administrative districts in the eligible border area and on the bilateral agreement concluded thereof between Poland and the Russian Federation

The European Parliament and the Council 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 on the implementation and functioning of the local border traffic that this regime makes life significantly easier for people living near the external land borders, while ensuring at the same time the internal security of the Schengen area.

The Commission also stated in the report that given the specific position of Kaliningrad, in order to avoid its isolation from immediate neighbours and facilitate travel for its inhabitants an amendment of the Local Border Traffic Regulation was justified. Kaliningrad is a region of the Russian Federation with a population of almost one million inhabitants that became the only enclave within the EU surrounded by two Member States as a consequence of the 2004 EU enlargement. Such amendment would allow the entire Kaliningrad area to be eligible as a border area in a bilateral agreement between a Member State and the Russian Federation.

Even though the EU-Russian Federation agreement on visa facilitation in force since 2007 already represented a significant step forward to enhance opportunities for mobility, the local border traffic regime should offer additional facilitations in particular for frequent needs for travel within the local area. Border residents would not have to prove sufficient means of subsistence, the permits might be issued free of charge, or separate lanes and/or specific border crossing points could be reserved or set up for local border traffic. Also, all residents of the Kaliningrad area, including the inhabitants of the city of Kaliningrad, would enjoy these facilitations, whereas some of the facilitations in the EU-Russian Federation visa facilitation agreement apply to certain categories of persons only.

In light of this particular situation, an exception to Article 3 paragraph 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1931/2006 was introduced allowing the entire Kaliningrad oblast to be considered as a border area. A specific border area on the Polish side was included in the eligible border area as well, in order to facilitate and enhance cooperation between the Kaliningrad oblast on the one hand and major centres in the North of Poland on the other.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)74: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:074:FIN

---