Luxembourg, 05/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Council has finally decided to keep things as they are with regard to mega trucks being able to cross borders, a point related to the controversial dossier on the revision of weights and measures for lorries. In the political agreement adopted by transport ministers on Thursday 5 June, the amendments to Directive 96/53/EC exclusively focus on the technical improvements to the design of lorries to make them safer and greener, as claimed by the Commission in its draft revision.
Delegations divided into two blocs. The heated debates during the informal Council highlighted the extent of the divergences between the European delegations, with a bloc of “Nordic” countries defending longer and heavier lorries. This bloc includes the Scandinavian countries, where such lorries are mainly used (Sweden, Denmark, Finland) and Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, which are carrying out pilot projects on the subject, and the United Kingdom and Ireland, where lorries are higher. These countries were prepared to support a Belgian proposal amending Article 4.4 proposed by the Commission to authorise cross-border traffic of mega trucks between two consenting countries. The Belgian proposal aimed to remove any legal ambiguity and to leave it up to member states to use these vehicles or not, according to their own specificities.
In the other camp, countries from Central and Eastern Europe still had misgivings about including the cross-border traffic of mega trucks in the revision (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, France, Czech Republic, Croatia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Luxembourg). These delegations highlighted fears about road safety, infrastructure investment and maintenance and the lack of an impact study.
Commission statement. In an effort to obtain a compromise, the Greek Presidency decided to remove Article 4.4 proposed by Commission which was posing a problem to the delegations. Nonetheless, the Commission made a statement to clarify Article 4 on longer and wider lorries. The statement stipulates that cross-border traffic is indeed allowed between two countries authorising these lorries (which have the infrastructure and safety requirements for them) respecting the subsidiarity principle. This statement is still in the same vein as Article 4.4, which has been removed and the interpretation provided by the Commission about European rules in 2013. This therefore is indeed back to square one. European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas said that he was unhappy that the question of mega trucks is still being linked to discussions on improving lorry dimensions.
Greener and safer. Nonetheless, the ministers' work on revising the weights and dimensions of lorries was not in vain because they established their position on the design of lorries ahead of the negotiations with the European Parliament. Transport ministers are therefore agreeing to a different cabin design so that they better absorb shocks and collapse in the event of a collision and reduce the blind spots for drivers, so that heavy goods vehicles are safer for vulnerable road users. To make them more environmentally friendly, the cabins will be made more round and the rear aerofoils can be fitted to make vehicles more aerodynamic and therefore reduce their fuel consumption and polluting emissions. Finally, the Council is authorising heavy-duty vehicles using substitute fuels to weigh an additional tonne, so that appropriate technologies can be installed. The new rules on the design of the rear of the lorries will apply the three years after adoption of the revision but the Council is looking to a further transition period of five years for cabin designs. The commissioner expressed reservations on this and said that it would be difficult to get European citizens to wait eight years for the amendments requested by NGOs and which helped the environment and promoted road safety. Before the revision of the directive can be ratified by Council and the Parliament, they will have to reach an agreement in trialogue negotiations under the incoming Italian Presidency. (MD)