Negotiators from the Council of the EU and the European Parliament will start interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogue’) on Tuesday 26 October on vehicles hired without drivers in road freight transport (2006/1/EC).
The ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper) adopted a common position on 22 October (see EUROPE 12817/25). The EU Council’s negotiating mandate was “widely supported by the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU”, a diplomatic source close to the dossier told EUROPE.
In concrete terms, another diplomatic source told EUROPE, all Member States except Austria - which is against the entire proposal - and Croatia, have rallied around the first of the two options presented by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council.
As a reminder, this provides for a guaranteed minimum period of two consecutive months for the hiring of a vehicle, after which registration requirements can be issued by a Member State. However, Member States could require, according to their own national rules, a registration of the vehicle on their territory after a period of 30 days of use.
It remains to be seen how the discussions will turn out when the negotiations start. On the issue of the duration of the hire, Parliament has indicated its desire to see a guaranteed period of four months introduced.
“Discussions have been quite good with the EU Council and an agreement is very possible this year, but it is difficult to say whether it will happen tomorrow or not”, summarised a source from the European People’s Party (EPP), which includes the rapporteur on the dossier, Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar (Portugal). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)