The European Union is not a contracting party to ADR and ADN. Nevertheless, the fact that the European Union does not take part in an international agreement does not prevent it from exercising its competence by establishing, through its institutions, a position to be adopted on its behalf in the body set up by that agreement, in particular through the Member States which are party to that agreement acting jointly in its interest (see Germany v Council, C-399/12 ("OIV"), paragraph 52 and the case law referred to).

Currently, there are 48 Contracting Parties to ADR, and all the EU Member States are contracting parties to this Agreement. There are 18 Contracting Parties to ADN, and 13 EU Member States are Contracting Parties to this Agreement.

Since 1 January 1997 the European Union has applied the provisions of ADR to road transport of dangerous goods on the EU territory, initially pursuant to Council Directive 94/55/EC of 21 November 1994 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States with regard to the transport of dangerous goods by road. In 2008, Directive 94/55/EC was replaced by Directive 2008/68/EC which pursues the principles of its predecessor. Since 1 January 2009, the European Union has applied the provisions of ADN to inland waterway transport of dangerous goods.

Article 4 of Directive 2008/68/EC, concerning third countries establishes that "The transport of dangerous goods between Member States and third countries shall be authorised in so far as it complies with the requirements of the ADR, RID or ADN, unless otherwise indicated in the Annexes". In addition, Recital 12 of the Directive establishes that "The use of means of transport registered in third countries should be allowed for the international transport of dangerous goods within the territories of the Member States, subject to compliance with the relevant provisions of the ADR, RID or ADN and of this Directive".

Unless a sufficient number of objections are raised by the parties, the amendments concerned under this proposal are expected to enter into force on 1 January 2017 and become binding.

The legal basis of the proposed Council Decision is Article 91 TFEU in conjunction with Article 218(9) TFEU.

The draft proposal provides for in Article 1 a detailed list of the envisaged amendments, specifying that they can be accepted by the Union. The envisaged amendments are considered to be appropriate for the safe transport of dangerous goods in a cost effective manner, taking into account technological progress, and can therefore be supported.

4. IMPLEMENTATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The above mentioned amendments, to the extent that they become binding, will need to be incorporated into Directive 2008/68/EC on the inland transport of dangerous goods, which applies uniform rules to the transport of dangerous goods by road, by rail or by inland waterway within or between Member States. To this end, the Commission has been empowered to adapt Annex I, Section I.1 and Annex III, Section III.1 to Directive 2008/68/EC to scientific and technical progress. Once the objection period as regards the notification by the Secretary-General of the United Nations has expired, the Commission will launch the adaptation process.