Luxembourg, 11/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - Gathered for a Transport Council meeting on Thursday 11 June 2009, the EU27 transport ministers broadly backed the idea of excluding national short-distance transport services (urban, suburban and regional transport) from the scope of the draft EU regulation to harmonise the rights of bus and coach passengers. During a policy debate, the vast majority of delegations said the regulation should be limited to regular national and international long-distance transport, arguing that the special nature of car and coach journeys should be taken into account as they tend to be very accessible, and usually managed by tiny companies for which the introduction of all the rules set out by the Commission would prove too costly. The Council took note of a progress report on this issue, announcing that it would continue to consider the draft regulation under the Swedish Presidency of the EU in the second half of the year.
Based on a questionnaire prepared by the Czech Presidency of the Council (see EUROPE 9918), all the delegations backed the idea behind the regulation, namely boosting and harmonising European passenger rights irrespective of the type of transport used, and providing aid and information for disabled passengers and other passengers with limited mobility. Most delegations, however, argued that the draft regulation as submitted by the European Commission in December 2008 (see EUROPE 9797) should be changed to better meet the specific nature of coach and bus transport. Slovenia, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece, Ireland, France, Estonia, Denmark and Bulgaria said they wanted the regulation to be restricted to national and international regular bus and coach journeys (setting out criteria for journey length). According to Germany, Spain and several other member states, such a restriction would take account of the economic impact of the regulation on the small and medium-sized enterprises, which provide most short distance bus and coach journeys. France stresses the “extremely different” nature of short-distance journeys and suggests that local transport passenger rights should be set out in separate legislation or included in an annex to the draft regulation (or in a separate document drawn up by the Commission). Denmark on the other hand, which has introduced an individual taxi service for the disabled, along with the United Kingdom, which has fully liberalised all road transport, and Belgium want short-distance journeys to be governed by national rather than EU legislation.
Romania brought up the need to balance passenger rights and the needs of economic operators. Latvia, Portugal and Ireland highlighted the need to examine other areas of the draft legislation like company liability in the event of passenger injury or death. The United Kingdom fears that the EU rules would water down its own accident compensation and liability system and wants the accident liability and advance payment criteria in the draft regulation to be governed by national legislation. Poland, Finland and Hungary want an open application system with possible exemptions to enable member states to ensure that measures that are not suited to the country in question do not apply, but want fundamental rights to be guaranteed to all passengers.
Cyprus, Austria and Italy, however, suggest that the draft regulation should apply to all forms of transport without exception, but with a system making it possible to examine on a case-by-case basis any problems likely to be caused to the various types of service. This option is backed by the Commission, which wants to keep the idea of “full coverage” of passenger rights, but has been flatly rejected by the majority of member states, which see it as too regulatory and difficult to apply. Cyprus, however, is reported to have aligned itself with the majority, whereas Austria, which wants the regulation to have wide application, prefers the position taken by Poland, Finland and Hungary. (A.By./transl.fl)