Brussels, 27/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - A report is expected to be published at the end of February on the road haulage market, in which the issue of cabotage is expected to be raised. On 24 January, the European Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas, confirmed the forthcoming publication of this document, which is in response to a question raised last November by Carlo Fidanza MEP (EPP, Italy) on the question of unfair competition, about which Italian road haulage operators (strikes at the end of last year) were complaining, particularly the illegal cabotage practices employed by Eastern European road haulage operators. The MEP wanted to know what the Commission was prepared to do to tackle this problem. The commissioner said that there was no tangible proof that cabotage (2% of all volume transported) or alleged illegal practices attached to it had an impact on the road transport market. Member states that have carried out inspections have only identified a limited number of fraud cases, stated the commissioner. Kallas was therefore only prepared to say that a study partly focusing on this subject would be available soon, as stipulated in Regulation 1072/2009 on the international road transport market. There is, however, no question of any changes being made to cabotage under the current Parliament. (MD/transl.fl)