Brussels, 27/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the EU has agreed on its position on the merger of the driving licence and the driver card required for the use of the tachograph: the EU27 are opposed to this, due to costs. This completes the Council's partial general orientation reached in December on the revision of the regulation on the tachograph. At the time, the EU27 left this controversial issue outstanding. It now has a complete general orientation on the tachograph, a few days ahead of the vote of the plenary session of the Parliament on the first-reading revision.
The Council would rather not include the driver card in the driving licence, whereas the Commission wished to make this operation compulsory in its proposed revision of the tachograph, for the purpose of limiting fraud. A majority of delegations opposed this at the General Affairs Council of 26 June, on the grounds that the advantages of the merger were not enough to outweigh the costs it would bring about. The Council is therefore waiting for the results of the feasibility study being carried out by the Commission before continuing its work on the revision procedure. The Commission is not pleased at the stance the Council has taken, which it believes will compromise the security of the tachograph. The Commission argues that the Council is not offering sufficient guarantees to prevent fraud, or any long-term alternatives to personalise the cards and therefore reduce abuse of them. It calls upon the Council to continue its talks on this subject over the forthcoming stages of negotiations in trialogue. (MD/transl.fl)