On Wednesday 21 October, the Bulgarian Government announced that it intended to bring an action before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) - under Article 263 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union - with a view to obtaining the repeal of certain provisions of the ‘mobility I’ package adopted last July (see EUROPE 12524/19).
More specifically, the rules concerning the return of drivers, the return of the vehicle and posting, as well as the prohibition of weekly rest periods on board the vehicle and the rest period between two cabotage cycles.
The latter “have extremely unfavourable consequences for Bulgarian companies operating internationally in the field of road haulage”, according to Sofia in a statement.
The government also denounces “discrimination on grounds of geographical location and restriction of equal access to the single internal market” and regrets that the impact assessments announced by the Commission have still not been submitted.
Bulgaria is one of the main critics of this legislative package (see EUROPE 12518/7, 12502/3) and is the second State to announce its intention to refer the matter to the Court.
At the beginning of September, Lithuania made similar announcements (see EUROPE 12551/31). The two countries will, however, take separate action, a diplomatic source confirmed to EUROPE. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)