Rapporteur Wim van de Camp (EPP, the Netherlands) and the shadow European Parliament rapporteurs will tackle major aspects of the revision of the EU regulations on lorry drivers’ work and rest times (Regulation 561/2006) and use of tachographs (Regulation 165/2014) at a meeting on the fringes of the next plenary in Strasbourg, which runs from 16 to 18 April.
This will be the third and probably penultimate meeting of the rapporteur with the shadow rapporteurs to reach agreements on these texts, which are part of the first mobility package unveiled by the European Commission on 31 May 2017 (see EUROPE 11799). Van de Camp’s report on the regulations has been welcomed by MEPs (see EUROPE 11935, 11945).
The discussions will focus on reduced/standard rest times, flexibility and, above all, drivers’ return journey’s home.
The first compromise amendments proposed by Van de Camp were essentially technical and didn’t cover the question of tachographs. One of the amendments would include light commercial vehicles with an authorised loaded weight of above 2.4 tonnes in the scope of revised Regulation 561/2006.
It appears that a significant majority should be able to emerge without any major difficulty for both regulations, explains a European source.
The national delegations' views still clash within the Council of the European Union’s working group on transport (see EUROPE 11988). The experts will now work on a new draft compromise prepared by the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council, unveiled on Wednesday 4 April. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)