Brussels, 15/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided on Thursday 14 May 2009 to send Belgium a reasoned opinion to get it to ensure that EU Directive 96/26/EC of 29 April 1996 on access to the profession of lorry driver and passenger vehicle driver also applies to local and urban short-distance drivers. The directive sets out requirements on finance, reliability and professional ability that road transport companies must meet in order to work in good safety conditions.
In 2007, in order to respect the sharing out of institutional powers in the complicated federal and regional system in Belgium, it issued a law excluding urban and local transport from the national legislation transposing the EU directive. No regional rules have yet been introduced to introduce the EU rules, and Belgian urban and local transport drivers are therefore not subject to the directive despite the fact that it should apply to all drivers of passenger vehicles with more than 9 seats. The Commission may decide to take the case to the European Court of Justice if it does not receive a satisfactory response from Belgium in the two months following the reasoned opinion. (L.C./transl.fl)