On Wednesday 3 February, the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) adopted the Council of the EU’s position on the draft regulation allowing certificates, licences and authorisations in the transport sector to be renewed again and some training and checks to be postponed (see EUROPE 12638/6).
The health restrictions in force in the EU prevent operators, transporters and individuals in some Member States from fulfilling certain administrative requirements.
The position adopted today would extend the validity of certificates, licences and authorisations with an expiry date between 1 September 2020 and 30 June 2021 by ten months. The Commission proposed that documents that had expired or would expire between 1 September 2020 and 30 April 2021 should remain valid for a maximum of seven additional months.
The Council of the EU has also introduced the possibility for vocational training certificates and driving licences that have already been extended under the Regulation adopted last May (see EUROPE 12491/16) to be extended again, for a period of 6 months or, in some cases, until 1 July 2021.
Finally, the Council of the EU plans to retain the Commission’s proposal to allow additional extensions for countries where renewals would remain impracticable beyond the agreed deadline.
However, the adopted mandate requires that an upstream assessment be carried out to ensure that “the requested extension does not lead to disproportionate risks in terms of transport safety and security”. Last week MEPs expressed concern about this issue (see EUROPE 12643/20).
They will be called upon to vote on the draft regulation at next week’s plenary session. As the negotiations were conducted under the urgency procedure, the European Parliament was consulted informally before the vote by Coreper today.
The adopted report can be found at: https://bit.ly/3cDIoqw (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)