Brussels, 14/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - On 16 January, the European Parliament will hold a debate in second reading on two texts intended to avoid social dumping in road transport. These texts are on harmonising the training required of drivers (report by Mathieu Grosch, Belgian member of the EPP Group) and on drivers' certificate that will make it possible to monitor whether third country drivers are employed in European transport companies under the same social conditions as their colleagues who are nationals of the same state as their employer (Rijk Van Dam, Dutch member of the Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities). The rapporteurs propose amendments that are generally not far from the line followed by the Council.
The Grosch Report on the training of professional haulage drivers or drivers of passenger transport is along the lines of the Council, and insists on the integration of "initial training" as requested by the directive and the training required for obtaining a driving licence. The amendments place emphasis on the importance of the test at the end of the initial training, but gives greater flexibility regarding organisation of the training. The rapporteur in fact proposes, "for economic reasons", that the duration of continuous training should be spread out over five years, an element considered as far more practical by a representative of the road transport association, the IRU. The amendments also transform the training factors in order to take "objectives" into account, allowing the authorities and the training bodies to apply their method of training. We recall that the directive aims to make the training of drivers compulsory and to harmonise it. For the time being, initial training is not compulsory for entering the haulage profession, except in France and the Netherlands.
The van Dam Report only makes it compulsory for third country drivers employed by European international transport companies to have a drivers' certificate, although this does pave the way for extending compulsory certificates for all drivers at a later date. Rijk van Dam calls on the Commission to examine, within 4 years after entry into force of the regulation, the consequences of only making it compulsory for drivers from third countries to have a drivers' certificate, as well as the consequences of the frequency and modalities of control. The certificate will allow national authorities to control the legal status of the working relationship between EU employers and drivers carrying out international goods haulage in the EC. The aim of this so-called "Willy Batz" proposal, after the name of the German company employing Bulgarian drivers, is to avoid dumping of Eastern European drivers and to anticipate enlargement. The Council had accepted the EP's amendments at first reading limiting compulsory certificates to third country nationals, and calling for permit numbers and social security numbers to be added to the personal data of drivers in order to reduce fraud.
The Parliament should, moreover, on the basis of the report by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (EPP, Greece), adopt a recommendation for adopting the directive fixing the maximum length of both non-articulated and articulated buses. In conformity with the Council's common position, the proposal of recommendation accepts that the buffer date for authorisation of buses that do not correspond to the requirements of the directive should be fixed at December 2020.