COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2021/2179

of 9 December 2021

on the functionalities of the public interface connected to the Internal Market Information System for posting drivers in the road transport sector

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to 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 (1), and in particular Article 1(14) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Pursuant to Article 1(11) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057, road transport operators may be required to send to the competent authorities of a Member State to which a driver is or has been posted a posting declaration or other documents, using a multilingual standard form of the public interface connected to the Internal Market Information System (‘IMI’), established by Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2).

(2) Access to the public interface connected to IMI should be done via the creation of a secure account allowing authorised users to manage the posting declarations and document requests made by the competent authorities of a Member State. Authorised users should be able to record the details regarding the operator, the transport manager and posted drivers. An authorised user is a person acting on behalf of the operator to manage posting declarations and reply to requests for documents from the host Member State.

(3) Posting declarations should be submitted in the public interface for a maximum of 6 months.

(4) In order to comply with Article 1(12) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057 and keep the posting declarations up to date, it should be possible to amend the information in the posting declaration.

(5) It should be also easy to renew the declaration, in order to avoid an excessive administrative burden on operators.

(6) To allow the operators to comply with the obligation set out in Article 1(11)(b)(i) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057 the public interface connected to IMI should make the declaration available in paper and electronic form.

(7) In case of the failure of the operator to provide documents pursuant to Article 1(11), point (c), the operator should be able to see in the public interface connected to IMI when such documents have been provided by the Member State of establishment following a request for assistance by the host Member State in IMI.

(8) The public interface connected to IMI should also allow for one or more national authorities to receive, in IMI, posting declarations and the documents sent at their request by operators.

(9) In order to ensure efficient enforcement of the specific rules on the posting of drivers and to avoid excessive administrative burden, it is important that the national competent authorities within the host Member State coordinate so that operators do not receive unnecessary requests in the public interface connected to IMI from that Member State covering the same posting period.

(10) In order for national authorities to check compliance with posting rules, it is crucial that the national competent authorities have access to the driver’s tachographs record sheets that provide for the country codes of the Member States crossed by the driver.

(11) Given that operators are only required to keep tachograph records sheets, printouts and downloaded data in a legible form for at least 1 year after their use, the public interface connected to IMI should allow the operator to respond to requests for documents from the competent authorities of the Member State where the posting took place for a period covering up to the preceding 12 months from the date of the request, as in accordance with Article 10(5) of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3).

(12) In order to allow operators to gather all necessary documents within 8 weeks, the operator should be able to provide the requested documents in one or more stages.

(13) The operator should be informed via the public interface connected to IMI in cases where the host Member State asks for the assistance of the Member State of establishment.

(14) To avoid that requests for documents remain open for an indefinite duration, the competent authority of the host Member State should close them upon completion of the assessment of compliance of the operator with the posting rules and inform the operator of the result of the request. In cases where the competent authorities of the host Member State do not close the request for documents, it should be automatically closed after a period of 24 months.

(15) Given the sensitive character of the personal data shared through the public interface connected to IMI, it is necessary to allow for the deletion of all data stored in that interface and the operators’ accounts when that data is no longer needed for checking compliance with the rules on posting drivers in the road transport sector. An obligation for automatic deletion should also apply to the documents submitted by the operator via the public interface connected to IMI following requests for documents from the competent authorities.

(16) Where it is necessary for the purposes of this Regulation to process personal data, this should be carried out in accordance with Union law on the protection of personal data. Any processing of personal data based on this Regulation is subject to Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4).

(17) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, and delivered an opinion on 7 July 2021.

(18) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee referred to in Article 4(1) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057.

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1 Subject matter This Regulation specifies the functionalities of the public interface connected to the Internal Market Information System (‘IMI’) for the purposes of Article 1(11) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057.

Article 2 General functionalities 1. The multilingual public interface connected to IMI shall provide, in particular, for the following technical functionalities to operators: (1) creating an account for secure access to the operator’s reserved area; (2) ensuring appropriate logging of user activity; (3) recording in the account the details of the operator, the authorised users, the transport manager and the posted drivers; (4) managing of the posting declarations: (a) recording the information referred to in Article 1(11), point (a) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057; (b) submitting a posting declaration containing the information referred to in point (a) covering a minimum period of 1 day up to a maximum period of 6 months; (c) amending the information in the posting declaration in order to keep it up to date; (d) downloading the copy of a posting declaration in electronic form and in a format that allows for printing; (e) renewing the posting declaration; (f) withdrawing of the posting declaration; (5) receiving and responding to requests for documentation pursuant to Article 1(11)(c) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057; (6) accessing and viewing any documents provided by the competent authorities Member State of establishment; (7) communicating with the competent authorities of the Member State where the posting took place; (8) being informed of the closure of the request by the competent authorities of the host Member State. 2. The multilingual public interface connected to IMI shall also provide the technical functionalities allowing one or more national authorities of the host Member State that are competent authorities within the meaning of Article 5, point (f) of Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 to: (a) receive posting declarations; (b) request documents under the procedure specified in Article 1(11)(c) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057; (c) enter the final outcome of the assessment of compliance of the operator with the posting rules and to close the request in IMI.

Article 3 Functionalities relating to requests for documents 1. The public interface shall allow the competent authority of the Member State where the posting took place to request the operator to send documents set out in the first subparagraph of Article 1(11)(c) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057 for a period covering up to the preceding 12 months from the date of the request. The public interface connected to IMI shall allow the operator to provide the requested documents in one or more stages. 2. In the event that the operator is requested to provide one or more additional documents that were not included in the request referred to in paragraph 1, the public interface shall calculate the 8-week time period for providing documents from the date of request for the additional document(s). 3. The public interface shall allow for the operator to be informed in cases where the host Member State asks for the assistance of the Member State of establishment. 4. Any document uploaded by the competent authority of the Member State of establishment, following a request for assistance made by the competent authority of the host Member State, pursuant to Article 1(11), point (c), second subparagraph of Directive (EU) 2020/1057, shall be visible in the operator’s account. 5. The public interface shall allow the operator to be notified of the closure of the request for documents with an indication of the final outcome once the requested documents have been checked by the national authorities. Requests for documents that have not been closed by the requesting competent authority of the host Member State shall be automatically closed 24 months after the date of the request.

Article 4 Functionalities relating to the retention of data 1. The public interface connected to IMI shall allow for the deletion of all data stored in that public interface and the operators’ accounts when those data are no longer needed for the purposes for which they were collected and processed. The public interface shall allow for the sending of a reminder to the operator to review and delete, when necessary, the driver’s personal data. 2. The public interface shall allow for the automatic deletion of the posting declarations which have been submitted though that public interface after the 24-month period referred to in Article 1(13) of Directive (EU) 2020/1057. 3. Where documents have been submitted by the operator as part of a request for documents, the requested documents shall remain available for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which they were collected and not longer than for 12 months after the closure of the request.

Article 5 Entry into force This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 9 December 2021. For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1) OJ L 249, 31.7.2020, p. 49.

(2) Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System and repealing Commission Decision 2008/49/EC (‘the IMI Regulation’) (OJ L 316, 14.11.2012, p. 1).

(3) Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport and amending Council Regulations (EEC) No 3821/85 and (EC) No 2135/98 and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 (OJ L 102, 11.4.2006, p. 1).

(4) Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39).