Galileo Green Lane - the mobile solution easing the traffic situation at EU Borders

To ensure the flow of people and goods throughout the European Union (EU), it is important to manage the traffic situation at the EU borders, including at UK-EU border, where traffic has accumulated following of the closure of the border with France, Belgium and Netherlands. The“GalileoGreenLane” mobile solution, developed in May by the European GNSS Agency (GSA) in collaboration with the European Commission, does exactly this – facilitating the free movement of traffic across borders by providing a real-time visualisation of the border situation to both border authorities and drivers.

Galileo's positioning services were leveraged earlier this year to develop the Galileo Green Lane solution. The monitoring tool was developed to support border control authorities and freight transport companies during the COVID-19 pandemic by reducing the waiting times at borders and facilitating the free movement of critical goods.

"Our goal is to take advantage of the opportunities provided by Galileo to support EU companies and citizens. With the Galileo Green Lane solution, we are helping to mitigate the impact of the pandemic while improving the situation for thousands of drivers at this difficult time," said GSA Executive Director Rodrigo da Costa.

Real-time visualisation

For truck drivers, the mobile solution provides real-time visualisation of border traffic, through an EU-wide map indicating crossing times. It allows drivers to evaluate the waiting time at each border crossing.
When drivers enter a geofenced area within a specified distance from a border, they receive a notification produced by the border officers on the current situation at that border. Their location is collected anonymously only when they are approaching the border and it is solely used to update the overall border picture. Crowdsourced information is aggregated, including data from the leading European real-time visibility platform provided by Sixfold.

For border control authorities, the app provides real-time visualisation of the situation at border crossings along with regular updates on the traffic flow situation.

The "Galileo Green Lane" can now be used on all European Union Member State borders, allowing real-time visualisation at nearly 200 strategic border points. This can be checked here http://galileogreenlane.eu/

Stronger Together

User feedback is essential to the evolution of our services. The International Road Transport Union (IRU) understood from the very beginning the added value of the online solution for its members and has been collaborating with the GSA to continue to meet user needs in the best way possible.

The GSA is coordinating the project with the support of the European Commission, in particular the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS), the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) regarding needs linked to the Green Lanes, and the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), coordinating with the border authorities of the Member States.
The GSA will continue to improve the application to better respond to user needs based on the feedback received.