Member States’ ambassadors to the EU discussed on Wednesday 21 October a new version of the draft conclusions on the preparation of a freight contingency plan (see EUROPE 12577/5) and called for its approval by the EU Council.
The text is expected to be adopted by EU environment ministers on Friday 23 October, according to a European source.
The draft conclusions call on the Commission to “swiftly draw up” an emergency plan to support European freight transport in the event of a pandemic, such as the one currently raging, or major crises.
Member States detail their priorities, stressing first of all the need to “create reliable and robust coordination mechanisms to avoid unilateral and uncoordinated restrictions”.
Border crossing. They thus underline that in the event of a pandemic or crisis, the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) corridors and cross-border connections will have to be kept operational. Indeed, last spring, freight transport had been considerably slowed down by the resumption of controls at the EU’s internal borders (see EUROPE 12452/14).
The EU Council invites the Commission to draw lessons from this episode, for example by providing for international transport workers to be able to present the certificate attesting to their employment, in paper or digital form, in order to further reduce red tape – a point already addressed by the Commission in recommendations last March (see EUROPE 12452/14).
Workers and passengers. The text also calls for a plan that guarantees the free movement of transport workers “while safeguarding the protection of their health and safety”.
It also encourages the Commission to extend, in part or in full, the plan to passenger transport and transport in general – a somewhat firmer position than that previously advocated, which had merely prompted the Commission to analyse the merits of such an extension.
Easier derogations. This plan, the Member States further specify, should make it possible for temporary derogations tailored to each mode of transport to be implemented on a case-by-case basis more quickly than was the case at the height of the Covid crisis (see EUROPE 12476/2, 12556/18).
The Commission is also invited to develop a specific framework for temporary state aid in the event of future crises, to enable Member States to support the transport sector.
Finally, the draft conclusions stress the importance of the plan taking into account the specific needs of islands, remote and peripheral regions and overseas territories, “in order to ensure connectivity and prevent isolation”.
See the draft conclusions dated 21 October: https://bit.ly/31zNpKF (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)