In a document addressed to the Member States, the European Commission on Tuesday 11 February reaffirmed its reservations regarding the provisional agreement between the European Parliament and the EU Council on the social and market aspects of the ‘mobility I’ package (posting of truck drivers, driving and resting times, tachographs, cabotage and market access - see EUROPE 12389/7).
Concluded after more than two and a half years of intense discussions, this agreement still needs to be formally adopted by the Transport Ministers of the Member States.
The aim is to strike a balance between better working conditions for truck drivers - in particular by putting an end to ‘letterbox companies’ - and the freedom given to hauliers to provide cross-border services.
As the agreement was already approved at the Member States’ ambassadorial level (Coreper) on 20 December, this step should, in theory, be a formality. Nevertheless, the Commission and a minority of Member States seem determined to oppose the agreement in its present form to the end.
The document addressed to the Member States thus consists of four statements criticising the agreement, one from the Commission and the other three from the ten Member States that voted against the agreement at the Coreper meeting on 20 December.
A forthcoming legislative proposal to prevent the return of trucks? In its statement, the Commission again criticises two specific elements of the agreement: (1) the obligation for the truck to return to the country where the driver’s employer is established at least once every 8 weeks; (2) the restrictions imposed on combined transport operations.
According to the Commission, these two provisions - which were added to its initial proposal during the legislative process - are contrary to the objectives of the European Green Deal.
“The obligation of the return of the truck will lead to inefficiencies in the transport system and an increase in unnecessary emissions, pollution and congestion, while the restrictions on combined transport diminish its effectiveness to support multimodal freight operations”, the institution said.
Therefore, the Commission will “closely assess the climate, environmental, and single market functioning impact of these two aspects”, the statement continues. After which, if necessary, it will present “a targeted legislative proposal before the two provisions enter into force”.
The criticisms from the Member States are set out in three statements.
The first comes from the eight Member States most opposed to the agreement (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, and Romania). It recalls the reasons for their opposition to the agreement, in particular the return of trucks (see EUROPE 12357/4, 12376/13).
The other two come from Estonia and Belgium. While Tallinn is also critical of compulsory return for trucks, Belgium is not. For the latter, the problem with the agreement lies in the four-day ‘cooling-off period’ provided for in the case of cabotage operations.
Therefore, while the other nine Member States will vote against the agreement at the forthcoming meeting of Transport Ministers, Belgium will abstain.
In Parliament, the provisional agreement was approved on Tuesday 21 January by members of Parliament’s Transport Committee (TRAN) (see EUROPE 12408/20). However, further votes still need to be taken in the TRAN Committee and in plenary, where many amendments could be presented.
For the statements by the Commission and the ten Member States: http://bit.ly/2UMeLdI (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)