L 99/8 Official Journal of the European Union 17.4.2003 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 693/2003 of 14 April 2003 establishing a specific Facilitated Transit Document (FID), a Facilitated Rail Transit Document (FRTD) and amending the Common Consular Instructions and the Common Manual THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Article 62(2) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (%), Where 1 as: In order to prepare accession of new Member States, the Community should take into account specific situations, which may occur as a result of the enlargement and set out the relevant legislation in order to avoid future problems in relation with the crossing of the external border. The Community should address in particular the new situation of third country nationals who must necessarily cross the territory of one or several Member States in order to travel between two parts of their own country which are not geographically contiguous. A Facilitated Transit Document (FTD) and a Facilitated Rail Transit Document (FRTD) should be established for this specific case of transit by land. The FTD/FRTD are to constitute documents having the value of transit visas authorising their holders to enter in order to pass through the territories of Member States in accordance with the provisions of the Schengen acquis concerning the crossing of external borders. The conditions and the procedures for obtaining these documents should be facilitated in line with the provi- sions of the Schengen acquis. Penalties, as provided for in national law, should be imposed on the holder of the FTD/FRTD in case of misuse of the scheme. Since the objective of the proposed action, namely the recognition of FTD[FRTD, issued by one Member State, by the other Member States bound by the provisions of the Schengen acquis concerning the crossing of external borders cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore by reason of the scale of the action be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with yet published in the Official Journal. (*) Opinion delivered on 8 April 2003 (not yet published in the Official () Not Journal). (10) (11) the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportion- ality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve this objective. A uniform format for FTD and FRTD is established in Regulation (EC) No 694/2003 (). The Common Consular Instructions (*) and the Common Manual (*) should be amended accordingly. In accordance with Articles 1 and 2 of the Protocol on the position of Denmark annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Denmark is not taking part in the adoption of this Regulation, and is not bound by it or subject to its application. Given that this Regulation builds upon the Schengen acquis under the provisions of Title IV of Part Three of the Treaty establishing the European Community, Denmark shall, in accordance with Article 5 of the said Protocol, decide within a period of six months after the Council has adopted this Regulation whether it will implement it in its national law. As regards Iceland and Norway, this Regulation consti- tutes a development of provisions of the Schengen acquis within the meaning of the Agreement concluded by the Council of the European Union and the Republic of Iceland and the Kingdom of Norway concerning the association of those two States with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis (%), which fall within the area referred to in Article 1(B) of Council Decision 1999/437/EC of 17 May 1999 on certain arrangements for the application of that Agree- ment (). This Regulation constitutes a development of provisions of the Schengen acquis in which the United Kingdom does not take part, in accordance with Council Decision 2000/365/EC of 29 May 2000 concerning the request of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to take part in some of the provisions of the Schengen acquis (%); the United Kingdom is therefore not taking part in its adoption and is not bound by it or subject to its application. () See page 15 of this Official Journal. (¢ 0] C 313, 16.12.2002, p. 1. Instructions amended by Regulation ) No 415/2003 (O] L 64, 7.3.2003, p. 1). C 313,16.12.2002, p. 97. L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 36. L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 31. L 131, 1.6.2000, p. 43.