On Wednesday 16 October, the Member States’ ambassadors to the Council of the European Union (Coreper) discussed the Combined Transport Directive in order to resolve the technical problems encountered in the working group (see EUROPE 13496/5).
According to a European source contacted by Agence Europe on the same day, the debate had more of a political dimension. “We took a step back to put things down”, explained the source. The Member States find themselves “at a crossroads”, with some pushing for the use of the electronic freight transport information platform (eFTI) and others wanting time to set it up.
Discussions in the working group focused on the definition of combined transport. The new definition proposed by the European Commission, based on a percentage of external costs in relation to a purely road journey, requires data to be entered into the platform, which requires structures and digitalisation that some Member States are not yet in a position to provide.
The text therefore returns to the working group, but with “a new impetus”. “The Commission will have to explain how to make this possible”, the source said. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)