COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION of 6 February 1974 to the Member States concerning the application of the Council Directive of 24 April 1972 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the use of motor vehicles, and to the enforcement of the obligation to insure against such liability (74/165/EEC)

1. By virtue of Article 7 (1) of the Council Directive (1) of 24 April 1972 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the use of motor vehicles and to the enforcement of the obligation to insure against such liability, as amended by the Council Directive (2) of 19 December 1972, any vehicle normally based in the territory of a third country must be provided either with a valid green card or with a certificate of frontier insurance valid for the whole of the territory of the Community before entering that territory;

2. Now in the Member States practice differs as to the duration of contracts of insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles in the form of frontier insurance ; it is necessary to render uniform the practice followed in the Member States as to the minimum duration of frontier insurance so as to prevent abuse, after the removal of checks at intra-Community frontiers on insurance against civil liability in respect of motor vehicles, of frontier insurance by vehicles from third countries no longer covered, after their entry into a Member State, by insurance against civil liability valid in other Member States.

3. For these reasons, and by virtue of Article 155 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, the Commission recommends that the Member States ensure that contracts of insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles concluded in the form of frontier insurance shall, not later than 15 May 1974, have a minimum duration of 15 days.

Done at Brussels, 6 February 1974.

For the Commission

The President

François-Xavier ORTOLI (1)OJ No L 103, 2.5.1972, p. 1. (2)OJ No L 291, 28.12.1972, p. 162. Correction in OJ No L 75, 23.3.1973, p. 30.