MEPs provided the green light on Thursday (9 July) to the Movement Bundle covering truck drivers’ working conditions – turning down all modifications pressed from eastern and main member states.

After 3 years of settlements, MEPs still had to back all 3 legal acts of the plan – as embraced by EU ministers in April.

The brand-new guidelines will force trucks to return to the business’s functional centre every 8 weeks, give drivers the right to return home at routine periods and assurance that their pause are outside their vehicle – with companies covering the expense of lodging.

“The mobility package promotes fair competition between operators and improves road safety as well as drivers’ working conditions,” stated MEP Henna Virkkunen from the European People’s Party.

“The European single market cannot properly function without fair common rules which are uniformly controlled and enforced,” she added.

Nevertheless, more right-wing MEPs have actually explained the brand-new EU guidelines as being damaging to the single market.

“The mobility package is a clear example of economic protectionism,” stated MEP Kosma Zlotowski from the European Conservatives and Reformists, who declares that the brand-new guidelines victimize transport business from countries such as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Baltic States.

Lawsuits danger?

Ahead of the vote in plenary, ministers of transport and foreign affairs from 9 member states contacted the EU parliament to turn down the arrangements associated to the vehicle’s return to the nation of facility.

The demand of Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta and Romania is based upon “deep concern” about the road transport sector, which was seriously struck by the Covid-19 pandemic, plus on the EU single market and the Green Offer, they stated in a letter sent to MEPs last week.

Lithuanian vice-minister for transport, Gytis Mazeika, explained the finalizing off as “a point of no return on one hand and preparation for litigation on the other” considering that his nation has actually revealed it’s intent to bring the problem to the European Court of Justice.

On the other hand, EU commissioner for transport Adina Vălean cautioned that a few of the brand-new guidelines may be not lined up with the Green Offer – referring to the obligatory return of the vehicle every 8 weeks, and the limitations troubled integrated transport operations.

The commission will now provide by the end of the year a threat evaluation on the effect of these 2 elements on the environment and EU’s single market.

According to the Lithuanian International Transport and Logistics Alliance, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria alone would discharge an extra 3.2 m tonnes of CO2 annually under the brand-new guidelines.

“The commission, if necessary, will exercise its right to come forward with a targeted legislative proposal before the two provisions enter into force,” stated Vălean in a declaration.

The embraced guidelines will participate in force 18 months after they are released in the EU’s official journal.

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