The Finnish Presidency of the EU Council of the European Union sent a new document to the Member States' Ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) on Tuesday 19 November, including compromise proposals as part of the interinstitutional negotiations ('trilogue') on the proposal for a regulation on the electronic exchange of information in freight.
According to this document, of which EUROPE received a copy, the European Parliament and the EU Council have identified four main political issues - four major points of disagreement between the two institutions - that remain. These are the scope of the Regulation, the voluntary or mandatory nature of the transmission of information by electronic means by economic operators, the provision of delegated and implementing acts, and the date of application of the Regulation.
Scope. Concerning the scope, the position of parliamentarians is more ambitious than that of the Member States. Unlike the EU Council, they want the Regulation to cover the information requirements for the transport of goods laid out in the international conventions applicable in the Union.
On this subject, the Presidency proposes to maintain the EU Council's position, but providing that the European Commission will adopt delegated acts in order to “take into account the relevant international conventions and acts of the Union”.
Voluntary or mandatory nature. This second point is the central issue that divides Parliament and the EU Council. While the former would like it to be mandatory that the transfer of information between economic operators and the competent authorities of the Member States be carried out in an electronic form, the Member States would like the use of electronic means to remain a choice.
In this area, Helsinki suggests that no later than 5 years after the date of application of the Regulation, the Commission should evaluate any initiatives with a view, inter alia, of establishing an obligation for economic operators to transmit information to the authorities by electronic means.
In other words, the Commission would in future be required to assess the possibility of making the exchange of information obligatorily electronic, without this necessarily leading to the realisation of this possibility.
However, according to information collected by EUROPE, Parliament would be prepared to accept that the exchange of information by electronic means should remain optional until the Commission's evaluation, provided that the Commission automatically makes electronic exchange mandatory.
Date of application. Finally, the Finnish Presidency proposes that the Regulation should apply 4 years after the date of its entry into force (Parliament suggested 3 years and the Member States 6 years).
Meeting in Coreper, the Ambassadors will discuss the Finnish document on 22 November. At the end of their discussions, they will decide whether or not to approve the Finnish Presidency's negotiating mandate for the third trilogue, which will take place on 26 November in Strasbourg, and which will focus on political issues. Helsinki hopes to conclude all outstanding issues in this trilogue and thus reach a comprehensive agreement.
Presented on Thursday 17 May 2018, as part of the third ‘mobility’ package, the European Commission's proposal for a regulation aims to establish a legal framework for the electronic exchange of information in the freight transport sector in order to improve the efficiency of this sector (see EUROPE 12022/11).
To this end, the Commission's proposal stipulated that an economic operator must be able to transmit information relating to the transport of goods within the EU ('regulatory information') to the competent authorities and interlocutors via electronic platforms certified by national authorities and which would then be recognised in the Union. At the same time, Member States should be required to accept that this information be transmitted electronically.
Parliament adopted its position at first reading on 12 March 2019 (see EUROPE 12212/32) and the EU Council reached political agreement (‘general approach’) on 6 June 2019 (see EUROPE 12270/8). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)