The Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union has pledged in its programme to work to find compromise solutions on the European Commission proposals presented on 31 May last year as part of the first mobility package (see EUROPE 11799) and on the proposals on unfair competition from third country airlines published on 8 June (see EUROPE 11804).
The first mobility package will receive particular attention, given the wide gulf that exists between member states, as evidenced at the last transport ministers’ meeting on 5 December (see EUROPE 11919). The Presidency will seek a compromise solution on the proposals for revision of the regulations on the conditions that have to be complied with in order to pursue the occupation of road transport operator (1071/2009) and on access to the international road haulage market (1072/2009). The task will not be easy on the social aspects of this package of proposals.
Differences between the “Road Alliance” (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland) and the countries of central, eastern and peripheral Europe are particularly significant with regard to the posting of transport sector workers, cabotage management, hauliers’ rest times and the compulsory introduction of smart tachographs in heavy goods vehicles. Finding a compromise by the end of June 2018 on these various texts would seem, therefore, a very ambitious goal.
Negotiations on the revision of Regulation 868/2004 to address the unfair competition faced by EU airlines from the practices of third country companies is another of the Bulgarian Presidency’s priorities in this first half of 2018. The Commission is proposing to put in place binding instruments to tackle this issue, but the differences between the western European states, headed by France and Germany, and the states of central, eastern and peripheral Europe are also great and it is unlikely that a compromise will be reached before the end of June (see EUROPE 11920).
The Bulgarian Presidency has also intimated that it will, jointly with the European Commission, organise a high-level ministerial meeting on multimodal transport in Europe, to be held in Bulgaria during the course of the next six months. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)