Last week in a vote the European Parliament rejected the amendments to the proposals on updating drivers’ rest time rules, cabotage, and posting of drivers and referred them back to the Transport committee for further consideration.
The fact that the European Parliament has to reconsider the proposals means slowing down the legislation process.
Harmonisation on the market will not happen. Differences in national interpretation and enforcement of existing European directives will continue reducing the benefits of the internal market in Europe, increasing compliance costs for companies, and having a negative impact on efficiency in the supply chain. Big disparities in the level of wages across different European countries and the systems of social security will remain in place.
More liberalization in the transport market is not going to happen either – cabotage operations will stay limited to three voyages in seven days, keeping needless empty running and aggravating the problem of the lack of drivers.
Also, there is no solution for safe parking.
At the same time, a negative effect of the proposals, if they were accepted, will not take place – an administrative burden that would result from the provisions on international transport and tachograph in vans.
ESC regrets that the European Parliament failed to come to an agreement. MEPs will have to renegotiate to come to an acceptable agreement that could be endorsed by a majority in plenary.