The Commission is presenting this amended proposal for a Regulation both in response to Parliament's legislative resolution of 5 July 2000 and to take account of the work done so far on the proposal within the Council.
The proposed amendments relate in particular to :
- the addition of a recital which should clarify the links between the provisions of this Regulation and other existing provisions or instruments. The Commission could not agree to the inclusion of such clarifications in the form of articles;
- the inclusion of a recital concerning reciprocity;
- the inclusion of a recital to clarify the position of Iceland and Norway in respect of the Regulation;
- the proposed addition of the phrase "for stays of no more than three months", this is intended to fill the gap left in the original proposal;
- put in place a reciprocal mechanism making it possible to react against any third country that might reimpose a visa requirement on nationals of a Member State.
Other amendments aim to clarify certain aspects of the Regulation, and moreover, aim to make the wording compatible with the Schengen acquis and to avoid any contradiction with other existing provisions elsewhere.�