Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc, speaking at a conference on social issues in the transport sector in Brussels on Tuesday 24 January, announced that the Commission intends to present a raft of proposals for the road sector in the second half of May.
She outlined the forthcoming package and said that the initiatives would address four major, contentious issues in road transport: cabotage, “letter box” companies, posted workers and weekly rest periods.
Cabotage. The Commission intends to clarify the current rules on cabotage – where a European haulier transports goods in the national territory of another member state – and improve implementation. This announcement runs counter to what she announced at the last Transport Council where she said that she did not intend to legislate on this issue (see EUROPE 11680). Her intention is to clarify the regulatory framework without, however, pushing for further liberalisation.
“Letter box” companies. Turning to the issue of “letter box” companies, Bulc announced that she would propose toughening the rules for establishing companies to prevent operators “shopping around” and setting up in member states where wages and social costs are lowest. In this regard. the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU is seen by some observers as a further difficulty as Maltese law, they say, encourages the establishment of such bogus companies (see EUROPE 11680).
Directive on the posting of workers. Turning to the social chapter of the road package, the commissioner, in a swipe at provisions by France and Germany (see EUROPE 11679), repeated her opposition to individual initiatives on compliance with minimum wages. She said that the Commission is currently considering how to apply the posted workers directive “proportionately” to the road sector. She spoke of the deadlock among member states on this issue, with one group, which includes France, wanting the directive to apply fully to the road sector (see EUROPE 11673) and the other keen for the road sector to remain outside the scope of the directive. Bulc seems here to be feeling her way. She has previously said that she does not want to include the road sector in review of the posting of workers' directive (see EUROPE 11684).
Periods of rest at the end of the working week. The debate here relates to both the length of the rest period and where it takes place. Some member states have banned weekly rest periods in the driver’s cab – a common practice in the sector – causing tensions with other neighbouring member states. The Commission wants to propose clear harmonisation rules.
Tachographs. The commissioner also spoke of one of the major challenges for current and future European legislation: implementation and enforcement. To tackle fraud effectively, digital tachographs need to be fitted, she said with smart tachographs in the medium term. The tachograph should, in addition to monitoring driving, working and rest times, calculate the amount of time spend by a lorry driver in a given member state in order to tackle cabotage abuses. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)