Press Release, 07.06.2017: The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania - UNTRR requests the European Commission and European Parliament to stop the application of a double standard in the interpretation of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006

07.06.2017

Press Release

The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania - UNTRR requests the European Commission and European Parliament to stop the application of a double standard in the interpretation of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006

The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania - UNTRR requests the European Commission and the European Parliament to stop the application of a double standard in the interpretation of Regulation (EC) 561/2006 - which does not ban drivers from taking regular weekly rest period in the vehicle cabin. We are concerned about the current abusive interpretations, contrary to the provisions of the European regulation in force, introduced by Belgium, France (2014) and Germany (2017), which ban the regular weekly rest period in the vehicle. Instead of being sanctioned by concrete measures at the European level, these abusive national interpretations are taken over by the European Commission in its proposals to amend Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, to the detriment of Romanian and Eastern European road hauliers.

Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 has been unchanged since 2006 and for 11 years, it has been interpreted by the European Commission and ALL Member States as accepting the regular weekly rest period of at least 45 hours in the vehicle cabin. Since 2014, when France and Belgium have introduced national interpretations contrary to the provisions of this European Regulation, the European Commission did not to take any measure to sanction immediately these divergent national interpretations - thus encouraging other Member States such as Germany to follow them in 2017 and to ban the regular weekly rest period in the vehicle cabin, contrary to the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 which are in force at the moment. The question is when this Regulation was correctly interpreted? From 2006 until 2014 when the European Commission and all Member States have allowed normal weekly rest in the cabin or is it correctly interpreted since 2014 by Belgium and France and in 2017 by Germany, so by a few Member States, without any change to Regulation (EC) No 561/2006?

The European Commission and the European Parliament must stop these abusive national interpretations and not apply a double standard in the interpretation of the European regulations in force! Through its current proposal to amend Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 published on 31.05.2017, the Commission needs to clarify these issues by validating the interpretation and practice of the Member States and the European road transport industry in the last 11 years and not by taking on isolated and abusive interpretations!!!

Given that the European Commission's proposals are not yet in force and can be modified during the complex European legislative process, we consider abusive the sanctions applied by Western European authorities such as the Belgian authorities, which are currently acting against Regulation (EC) No 561/2006.

UNTRR condemns these actions taken by Belgium, France and Germany, as well as the European Commission's approach - and calls on the Members of the European Parliament to take measures to ensure the uniform application of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 at European level, as applied for 11 years.

Romanian Members of the European Parliament should not remain in inertia but, together with the MEPs from the Eastern Europe and from the other Member States with common interests should take action against the abuses of the Western European states with the support of the European Commission.

We recall that from 2014 until now, UNTRR has carried out numerous interventions and protest actions addressed to European and international institutions, Western European authorities as well as Romanian authorities. Interventions were sent to Violeta Bulc, European Commissioner for Transport, Martin Schulz during his mandate as President of the European Parliament, Alexander Dobrindt, Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure of Germany, Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania, Sorin Grindeanu, Romanian Prime Minister, Alexandru Razvan Cuc, Minister of Transport and Teodor Melescanu, Minister of Foreign Affairs. UNTRR requested urgent measures to repeal the protectionist laws adopted by Belgium, France and Germany, targeting transport companies from other Member States and having a direct impact on those in Eastern Europe.

*****

About UNTRR

National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) is an organisation - professional and employers, non-governmental, independent, apolitical - founded in 1990 on democratic principles, promoting and defending the interests of road transport domestically and internationally, recording since its foundation to the present over 14,000 members - operators carrying out domestic and international freight transport and passengers.