While the chairmen of the European Parliament's political groups are due to decide on Thursday 21 March whether the social and market aspects of the first mobility package (posting of drivers, driving and resting time, tachograph, cabotage and market access) will be voted on during the Parliament plenary session to be held from 25 to 28 March, a majority is reportedly emerging in this direction.
This is the general feeling after the S&D group decided internally on Wednesday 20 March to take a stand in favour of this option. The ALDE, GUE/NGL and ENF groups should also vote on all three texts at the next plenary session. The EPP will abstain, while the Greens/EFA, EFDD and ECR groups are expected to oppose a vote for this Parliament plenary session at the end of March.
In view of this political situation, the Conference of Presidents of the political groups will therefore probably choose, this Thursday at the end of the morning, to vote on these issues at this plenary session, thus confirming what had been envisaged two weeks ago (see EUROPE 12209/10).
If this is the case, Parliament could mark its negotiating position on the matter, three and a half months after obtaining a political agreement (‘general approach’) in the EU Council (see EUROPE 12152/10).
The conduct and conclusion of interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on these issues would then be highly unlikely in terms of time before the end of the MEPs' mandate. A message sent on Wednesday by Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport Policy, to Ismail Ertug (S&D, Germany), the rapporteur on the 'cabotage' dossier, nevertheless suggests that such an outcome is possible, if MEPs vote in favour of the draft compromises submitted by Mr Ertug, Merja Kyllönen (GUE/NGL, Finland) and Pavel Telička (ALDE, Czech Republic) on 28 February last (see EUROPE 12204A5).
“I note that the package of compromise amendments […] are fairly close to the texts of the general approach adopted by Council in December. I am therefore convinced that, should the Parliament agree to do so, with the full support of the Council Presidency, we can still find an interinstitutional agreement on this important initiative before the end of the legislature”, wrote Ms Bulc. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)