A few days before the next session of interinstitutional negotiations ('trilogue') on the social and market aspects of the 'mobility I' package, European Parliament negotiators were still waiting, on Thursday 5 December, for a compromise proposal from the European Commission on the thorny issue of driving and resting time for lorry drivers, said MEP Vera Tax (S&D, Netherlands), shadow rapporteur on this issue, at a restricted breakfast with the press.
According to Ms Tax, twenty political issues, i.e. issues on which the position of the Council of the European Union (see EUROPE 12152/10) and that of Parliament (see EUROPE 12229/1) are quite far apart, still need to be addressed in the fourth trilogue, scheduled for 11 December in the evening. Among these, the driving and resting time of lorry drivers is said to be one of the most problematic subjects.
The political agreement ('general approach') reached between the Member States provides that, over a period of 4 weeks, drivers must take at least two regular weekly rest periods (45 hours or more). According to this so-called "four-week reference period ", drivers could therefore take two reduced weekly rest periods (24 hours) two consecutive weeks.
For its part, Parliament defends a two-week reference period. This means that after taking a reduced weekly rest period of one week, drivers should be required to take a regular weekly rest period the following week.
Determined to defend the European Parliament's position, Ms Tax considers that the two-week reference period is necessary not only for the well-being of drivers, but also for road safety in general.
On 13 February 2018, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published a document in which it called for this reference period, in particular because of the risk that truck driver fatigue poses to road safety. According to one of its reports published in 2011, "driver fatigue is a significant factor in approximately 20% of commercial road transport collisions".
The previous trilogue on the social and market aspects of the 'mobility I' package (posting of lorry drivers, driving and resting time, tachographs, cabotage and market access) took place on the night of 25-26 November in Strasbourg and did not lead to any significant progress (see EUROPE 12377/16).
See the ETSC opinion document and report: https://bit.ly/2PoSTAO; https://bit.ly/36dw8a3 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)