During a debate on Tuesday 10 July on the draft report by Roberts Zīle (ECR, Latvia) on the liberalisation of coach and bus transport (see EUROPE 12048), MEPs in Parliament's transport committee said that the dossier on this subject involved some real legal and political complications.
It should be pointed out that this draft report is part of the revision of regulation No. 1073/2009 on the common rules for accessing the international bus and coach transport services market. The review was proposed by the European Commission on 8 November last as part of the second mobility package (see EUROPE 11900).
Although the shadow rapporteurs were keen to congratulate Mr Zīle on his method adopted during the negotiations by “attempting to have it both ways”, as asserted by Luis de Grandes Pascual (EPP, Spain), the divergences and concerns shared by the MEPs during debate on the question last February came to the fore (see EUROPE 11952).
Mr Zīle said that it was “a very controversial dossier” before expressing his wish to complete it before the end of the mandate, despite the fact that the S&D group had suggested postponing the deadline for submitting amendments and, therefore, the adoption of a common position.
One of the most difficult aspects revealed relates to subsidiarity and the scope of the member states. Dominique Riquet (ALDE, France) also explained that “there is a definite stench of subsidiarity”. MEPs from different political families were, in effect, opposed to exporting any specific national coach transport model to all the different EU member states.
In addition to the question of scope, MEPs also tackled the question of liberalising cabotage in this sector. This was one of the objectives of the European Commission and several MEPs, such as Peter Kouroumbashev (S&D, Bulgaria), who expressed surprise that the Commission was attempting to frame the question of cabotage in the freight sector as part of the first mobility package and to liberalise it in this context. The links with the first mobility package are quite obvious, despite the fact that the negotiations are stalling on the social and market aspects (see EUROPE 12036, 12055).
MEPs suggested that a very high number of amendments to this draft report are expected to be submitted. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)