Faced with the still very important differences between the member states concerning the social and market aspects of the first mobility package, the Austrian Minister for Transport, Norbert Hofer, has proposed holding small committee level negotiating meetings after the summer recess.
Mr Hofer said “I would like to propose this: that two members of the Road Alliance and the Visegrad Group are invited to a conclave. This is a model that works”. It was in these terms that Mr Hofer expressed his wish to unblock the negotiations on the politically very sensitive issues in the first mobility package: drivers' postings, rest and driving time, cabotage and the installation of a second-generation smart tachograph on lorries.
This involves a way out of the impasse given that the current Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union was only able to present a progress report after the failure of the negotiations between the Committee of Permanent Representative to the EU (‘Coreper’) and national experts (see EUROPE 12028).
For Mr Hofer, the conclave method is simple because no one leaves “unless there is white smoke”. The idea would be to involve the other member states in an inclusive approach by organising several bilateral meetings and then presenting the results of these negotiations to all the states.
Although the idea of the Austrian minister may appear quite original, it was rather well received by his colleagues and could prove appropriate. Élisabeth Borne, the French Minister for Transport announced when leaving that she wanted to “reflect” upon this kind of opportunity, before insisting, similarly to Violeta Bulc, the Commissioner for Transport, on the need to undertake transparent and inclusive negotiations.
Whatever transpires, this Transport Council facilitated discussions that are similar to those observed a year ago during the presentation by Ms Bulc of this first mobility package to ministers (see EUROPE 11804).
Although, obviously, progress at technical level has been observed, the political differences between the states in the Road Alliance (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden), which are in favour of social harmonisation, and the states in central, eastern and peripheral Europe, which support the liberalisation of the road transport sector, are still just as sharp. The Slovenian Minister for Infrastructure, Peter Gašperšič, therefore pointed out that the list of questions still pending has “remained unchanged” since the ministers' meeting last December (see EUROPE 11919).
Special Council meeting this September? According to the information we have received, several member states, in both western, central, eastern and peripheral Europe are calling for new negotiating methods, after having failed to reach an agreement under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council. The future Austrian Presidency has been encouraged to reach a balanced and acceptable solution for all.
In this regard, several delegations called on it to hold a special Transport Council meeting in September. Ms Bulc would like an agreement by “the beginning of the autumn”. This effectively means obtaining general approaches as soon as possible, in order to be able to complete the inter-institutional negotiations with the European Parliament (‘trialogues’) before the European elections in May 2019.
Shift towards vote on Parliament's negotiating mandates next week. As previously mentioned in our publication, the result of the European Parliament transport committee vote on these questions on 4 June did indeed let down many MEPs, the majority of whom were from Western Europe (see EUROPE 12034). According to the information we have received, it would appear that on the basis of article 69 in the in the internal Parliament regulation, 76 MEPs are expected to call for the negotiating mandates on these three reports voted on to be put to a vote next Monday (11 June), in view of a vote on Thursday in an attempt to reopen the text. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)