THE COUNCIL

HAVING REGARD to Article 13(c) of the Convention for European Economic Co-operation of 16th April 1948;

HAVING REGARD to the Report by the Tourism Committee of 5th February 1958 on the Temporary Importation into Member Countries of Motor Vehicles for Private Use [Doc. No. C(58)42];

CONSIDERING that the abolition of customs formalities for the temporary importation of motor vehicles for private use would, in certain circumstances, assist the development of international tourism and that Germany, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland have already taken measures to this end;

On the proposal of the Executive Committee;

RECOMMENDS that Member countries which still require Customs documents for the temporary importation of motor vehicles for private use into their territory:

(a) Cease to request the presentation of these documents before the next tourist season; and

(b) Report to the Organisation by 31st May 1958 on the measures they have taken to implement this Recommendation.

In adopting this Recommendation, the Council:

1.            AGREED to consider by 31st July 1958 the possibility of adopting a Decision on this subject on the basis of the reports submitted by Member countries in accordance with paragraph (b) of the said Recommendation.

2.            TOOK NOTE of the statements by the Delegates for Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and United Kingdom, who could give no guarantee that their authorities would implement the Recommendation.

3.            INSTRUCTED the Secretary-General to communicate this Recommendation to the Council of Europe’s Special Committee on the Simplification of Frontier Formalities (Pinton Committee).

At its meeting of 3rd October 1958, the Council, after taking note of the Report by the Tourism Committee of 12th August 1958 [Doc. No. C(58)220], REQUESTED the Delegates for Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, United Kingdom and Turkey to draw their authorities’ attention to that Report and to let the Organisation know by 31st May 1959 if they were in a position to comply with the provisions of the present Recommendation [see C/M (58) 27 (Final), Item 260 (a) and (b)].