Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the creation of the European single market and the deregulation of road transport in the European Union have led to an enormous growth of trade inside the Community and a substantial increase in transport between the Member States. With the accession of the new Member States, this development will substantially increase. Mr Turmes is right; in the White Paper, the Commission found that compliance with the regulations on working conditions and rest and driving times in goods transport on roads is only patchy. In addition, the Commission, in its two-year report on the implementation of Regulation 3820, has recorded a constant increase in the number of infringements. Ensuring strict application of the social regulations for road transport is not only a matter of social and competition policy, but is also of decisive significance for the safety of road transport. This is shown by the large number of accidents involving buses and lorries that are primarily attributable to failure to comply with these regulations. The purpose of the Commission proposal was to implement modernisation of the enforcement measures, qualitative improvements in reviewing and quantitative expansion of the control measures. Even in earlier debates, we agreed that a directive or regulation would make sense only if compliance with it could also be monitored. Which now are the most important changes that the Commission and the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism are making relative to the currently applicable regulations? On the positive side, I would like to point out that the proposed Directive is to apply not only to employed but also to independent drivers. In addition, through the Directive, a special monitoring of small companies in industrial areas is to be introduced. The scope of the control to be carried out in industrial areas has been substantially extended, for example to the weekly driving times, the total driving times during two successive weeks, the weekly rest times and offset times. This decisively increases both the social standard and the safety of transport. In its proposal, the Commission fails to allow for what Parliament contributed in the first reading on the implementation of the rest and driving times for professional lorry drivers. The Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, however, agreed to include the proposals of Parliament at the first reading in the proposal made here, in particular the definition of the driver, the range of application of the Directive and the subject of the controls. I am very well aware of the difficulties entailed by a delay in the introduction of the digital tachograph. Unfortunately, so far there are no binding undertakings from the industry to the effect that the devices will be available in sufficient numbers by the scheduled deadline. To that extent, I regard the solution of the committee as acceptable, which is to increase the control not, as originally proposed, to 3% but only to 2%, as was already found in my report on the revision of Regulation 3820, at any rate in connection with the option of a further increase of the controls on the introduction of the digital tachograph. I very much regret that a small majority of the committee did not accept the reduction that I proposed in the threshold for classification as a serious breach. The fact my fellow MEPs agreed to reduce the permitted excess of the weekly maximum working time from 20% to 10% makes it all the harder for me to understand that in respect of excesses of the maximum driving times, the rest times and cases in which the minimum rest time is not provided they did not follow the percentage reduction. There is therefore a legitimate fear that, as a result, drivers and companies will regularly be tempted not to comply with the statutory standards. For this reason, we have once again submitted the relevant motions, and I earnestly ask you to give them a majority. In conclusion, I would like to highlight our good collaboration with the rapporteur for the Committee for Employment and Social Affairs, Mrs Schroedter, in the context of the enhanced cooperation procedure. I would also like to express warm thanks to the Commission staff involved and to the secretariat of the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism, especially Mr Hauck, for their highly effective and helpful support. I also extend thanks to the representatives of the various trade union organisations, employers’ associations, and police authorities responsible for monitoring compliance with the social regulations, for their valuable suggestions for the practical implementation of a directive of this kind.

Political group: GUE-NGL