2018-08-07

Roads to the West still open

On 4 June of the current year the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism approved updated provisions on transport sector. They form a part of the so-called Mobility Package. Provisions on posting of transport workers, arousing the greatest emotions, were adopted with a slight majority of votes.

The new documents says that the posting provisions of an amendment on this issue of the directive (works on which are pending in parallel) are to be applied only to cabotage operations and road transport within combined transport. International transport and transit are to be excluded from the provisions under preparation.

“This is not the end yet, but a victory in this battle is very important. We already know that we managed to convince many sceptics to present our arguments on the EU forum. This gives us hope that similar voting proportions may be repeated,” commented Jan Buczek, president of the Associational of International Road Carriers [ZMPD].

Let us remind you that the Mobility Package is a collection of proposals on revision of provisions, presented by the European Commission whose aim is to regulate the international road transport. The project’s assumption is to define the applicable principles precisely - since according to founding fathers it is necessary to simplify the transport law, to introduce common solutions and to adapt the electronic toll collection system.

What does the voting of the Committee mean to Polish carriers? It means that our companies still remain competitive on the European market since their drivers will not be paid based on rates of a country in which they will be staying - and they are most frequently countries of Western Europe, mainly Germany - but according to Polish rates. In consequence their services will be cheaper than the ones offered by western firms.

“The result of the voting is good news for the transport sector from all countries of the European Union and a balanced compromise taking needs of drivers, carriers and supervision organisations into consideration,” says Agata Boutanos from the Brussels office of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers [ZPP].

As the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers explains, the advantageous voting in the Committee will make it possible to avoid application of the provisions on posting workers in road transport. According to the organisation’s experts, a different decision would result in considerable deterioration of the position of Polish transport enterprises and a marked increase in prices for transport of all goods in the EU.

However, there is still a long way to adoption of this version of the provisions. For the legislative procedure of the EU is based on agreement on the text of the legal document by 3 institutions: the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission. The regulations accepted by the Committee on Transport must be approved by the European Parliament and then they will be its official position, preceding conversations with the Council. This will be the most difficult stage of negotiations because representatives of the old EU countries sit on the Council and they are of a different opinion as far as the application scope of the directive on posting in transport sector is concerned.

The subject matter related to logistics and transport will be one of the issues raised during the Maritime Economy Forum Gdynia 2018.

Article developed in cooperation with "Namiary na Morze i Handel" magazine.

Phot. source: Namiary na Morze i Handel magazine