In preparation for the next meeting of national experts of the Council of the European Union’s Working Party on Land Transport, the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council on Monday 11 November presented a document suggesting possible compromises on the main political issues relating to the social and market aspects of the first mobility package (secondment of lorry drivers, driving and resting time, tachographs, cabotage and market access).
These policy issues represent the points in the ‘mobility I’ package on which the political agreement (‘general approach’) reached by the Member States (see EUROPE 12152/10) and the position adopted by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12229/1) are most disparate. The Finnish Presidency document divides them into “most political issues” and “intermediary political issues”.
Most political issues. The first category includes in particular the question of whether or not light commercial vehicles (vans) should be included in the scope of the Regulation on driving and resting time for lorry drivers, the date of introduction of second-generation smart tachographs on board lorries, the prohibition on drivers sleeping in the cab of their lorries and the cabotage model.
If, on these four points, the Presidency suggests easing the Member States’ position so that it is closer to that of Parliament, on other issues that are also among the “most political issues”, it simply proposes keeping the provisions contained in the general approach adopted by the States. These issues include in particular the weekly rest period, the driver’s return home and the truck’s return to the country where the company employing the driver is based.
Although part of the second mobility package (see EUROPE 11900/2), the subject of combined transport operations is another point considered by the Presidency to be one of the “most political issues” of the first mobility package. This subject is indeed strongly linked to cabotage rules (see EUROPE 12223/2). On this point, it would seem that the Presidency hopes that the Member States will agree to address the issue of cabotage when interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on the combined transport directive continue.
Intermediate political issues. Considering this to be an “intermediate political issue”, Helsinki also proposes that Member States show more flexibility regarding the date of entry into force of the cabotage regulation and access to the profession for vans. The aim is therefore to find a compromise on the number of months after which this type of vehicle will also be covered by the Regulation. While Parliament wants the text to apply immediately to vans, the EU Council is calling for a two-year transition period.
While these politically sensitive issues have, for the most part, been left out of the first two Parliament/EU Council negotiating sessions (see EUROPE 12341/9, 12365/13), the third trilogue on 25 November is expected to focus on them. To date, the outcome of the latter remains largely uncertain.
Finally, it should be noted that an additional difficulty arises from the deep divergences that also exist within the EU Council itself, with some Eastern European Member States (Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania) being particularly opposed to the ‘mobility I’ package in its current form (see EUROPE 12357/4). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)