EU Green Lanes – EU Internal Border Crossing
EU 15-minute fast track lanes for trucks at borders
To unblock Europe’s main arteries, the EU Commission created EU Green Lanes (fast lanes) on the internal border crossing for commercial vehicles carrying all types of goods and passengers.
As EU countries quickly reinstalled border checks in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, long queues have formed in the past week on the internal borders of the bloc, slowing down supply chains across the continent.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a video message that border checks had “a major impact on European transport”, and “slowed down and sometimes paralysed transport”.
She warned that “these delays can cause shortages”.
“The priority now is to make sure that the main access of our traffic in the EU are unblocked,” von der Leyen said.
The EU Commission wants member states to create so-called “green lanes”, were crossing the borders should take no longer than 15 minutes.
Over the weekend, over 40 km-long queues have formed on various borders, von der Leyen said, with 18-hours-long waiting times. “This has to stop,” she said.
Last week (15 – 22 March 2020) hours-long waiting times developed particularly on the Polish-German frontier after Warsaw’s decision to shut its borders to non-Poles, and the Austrian-Hungarian border, which also closed its borders to non-Hungarians.
Land-based supply chains, particularly road, which today accounts for 75 per cent of freight transport, have been “particularly severely affected” by the re-introduction of entry bans at internal borders, the EU executive said.
The commission wants countries to create a fast lane for all types of goods, not only particular types, such as medical supplies.
Download the map of the EU Green Lanes – EU Internal Border Crossing (PDF 9MB)
Download the map of the EU Green Lanes – EU Internal Border Crossing (JPG 0.8MB)