31.07.2020, PRESS RELEASE: Dark Friday for Eastern road hauliers: Mobility Package 1 has been published today in the Official Journal of the EU, marking the death sentence of Romanian international road freight transport

31.07.2020

PRESS RELEASE

Dark Friday for Eastern road hauliers: Mobility Package 1 has been published today in the Official Journal of the EU, marking the death sentence of Romanian international road freight transport

The Mobility Package 1, providing discriminatory rules in European road freight transport, was published today in the Official Journal of the EU, marking the death sentence of Romanian international road freight transport.

The new European legislative package in the field of road transport, published today, includes:

• Regulation (EU) 2020/1054 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 amending Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 as regards minimum requirements on maximum daily and weekly driving times, minimum breaks and daily and weekly rest periods and Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 as regards positioning by means of tachographs. New discriminatory rules for Romanian road hauliers, such as obligatory return home of the drivers every 3 or 4 weeks and the ban of regular weekly rest in the cabin will be directly applicable in all Member States from 20 August 2020. Basically, according to the new requirements, the first drivers will have to return home at 3 weeks since 20.08.2020, respectively from 11.09.2020.

• Regulation (EU) 2020/1055 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 amending Regulations (EC) No 1071/2009, (EC) No 1072/2009 and (EU) No 1024/2012 with a view to adapting them to developments in the road transport sector. The new discriminatory rules for Romanian road hauliers, such as the obligation to return home of the trucks at 8 weeks, the law applicable to contractual obligations and the 4-day cabotage restriction period (cooling-off) apply from February 21, 2022.

• Directive (EU) 2020/1057 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 laying down specific rules with respect to Directive 96/71/EC and Directive 2014/67/EU for posting drivers in the road transport sector and amending Directive 2006/22/EC as regards enforcement requirements and Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012. The new discriminatory rules for Romanian road hauliers, such as the application of posting to international road transport, cabotage and cross-trade operations (only 2 cross-border operations related to a bilateral transport being excluded) apply from February 2, 2022.

We mention that although the amendments to the European regulations brought by the Mobility Package 1 will theoretically be applied on equal terms to all Member States, in reality their impact is significantly different. Romanian and Eastern transport operators will be the most affected, as the proposals in the Mobility Package 1 lead to the impossibility of performing international road transport in Western Europe by companies from Eastern Europe.

The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania - UNTRR warns that the Mobility Package 1, whose provisions will apply from August 20, 2020, will have a strong negative effect on Romanian hauliers and on Romania, with major economic consequences. In the next 2 years, Romania will lose over 5% of GDP due to the migration of international road transport activity, including directly involved personnel and its families. Thus, road transport, the main contributor to the Romania’s export of services in recent years, is the most active and dynamic part of Romania's national economy that is now cut by Western Europe: companies, managers, employees and their families, most of them between 25 - 45 years old, will migrate to countries such as Germany (where for each child are offered allowances of almost 200 euros/month), the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Austria. In the medium and long term, Romania will lose approximately 200,000 professional drivers, including their families, and will face an unprecedented crisis in the labor market. At the same time, we estimate that we will lose 30% of Romanian transport operators who will not be able to survive the coronavirus crisis, and half of the remaining companies operating international road transport will leave Romania before 18 months, the term of enter into force of all provisions of Mobility Package 1.

The European democracy becomes a matter of quantity and not quality by the fact that this major legislative package for the European road transport industry, with discriminatory provisions and unanswered questions about the possibility of effective application and compliance with the new rules by good faith firms, has been published urgently today, 31.07.2020 very shortly after its adoption on 09.07.2020, under unprecedented pressure from the Western States and ignoring the appeal of Romania and the other 8 affected Member States.

The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania - UNTRR requests the Romanian Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications and the European Commission to urgently clarify the rules that will enter into force on 20.08.2020, respectively to explain how to prove the compliance with the obligation concerning the return home of Romanian drivers and to confirm the fact that it can be organized in logistics centers rented or owned by Romanian transport companies in Western Europe, as well as to inform which are the sanctions for non-compliance with this provision.

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The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) is an employers' and professional organization founded in 1990 on democratic principles, which promotes and protects nationally and internationally the interests of Romanian operators performing road transport of passengers and goods, recording from its foundation to the present over 16,000 members - operators carrying out domestic and international freight transport and passengers.