The European Common Space has been the goal of many road traffic actors since the First International Convention held in Paris, in 1909. Nearly a century of efforts have been devoted since, in order to smooth the road signs comprehension differences between drivers from different European countries. Since its creation in 1956, the European Union (EU) has experienced several enlargements that, most probably, will not be the last ones. Today, the EU integrates 25 countries with at least 20 official languages. The very idea of a European Common Space entails concepts as "mobility", "exchange" or "communication" that are critical to an optimized, and beneficial development of the EU in all ways possible: social, cultural, political, economical and commercial. Developed and implemented during the eighties and nineties, new traffic information technologies (the so called ITS -Intelligent Transport Systems) have come to open new paths on traffic control and management within the European area. If one focuses on the European driver, and in spite of the Europe wide efforts devoted to VMS harmonization, some problems concerning VMS usability remain as layout differences on VMS, diverging road categorization principles, pictogram or text selection and disposition, unsuitable or lacking pictograms, and so on. Aware of such circumstances, the MARE NOSTRUM VMS members have adopted a pragmatic, pro-active stance. Particularly concerned by multipurpose (or pictogram + text) VMS implementation, some CORVETTE, SERTI and ARTS representatives have joined to constitute a working group, focused on establishing a common set of VMS messages to be used all through a Long Distance Corridor that spans from Trieste (Italy) to Seville (Spain). By trying to make the most of the shareable signing strategies, and yet reducing or minimizing existing differences on (national) signing ways, the Mare Nostrum VMS Group confronts a hard task that reflects the very state of the general European affairs at large. Beyond all, the Mare Nostrum VMS task is a European oriented one that mirrors our wish of making the EU a rich, yet integrated, European Common Space.