Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the distribution of authorisations among Member States received through the Agreements between the European Community and the Republic of Bulgaria and between the European Community and the Republic of Hungary establishing certain conditions for the carriage of goods by road and the promotion of Combined Transport"

(2000/C 168/04)

On 10 April 2000 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 71 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 6 April 2000. The rapporteur was Mr Kielman.

At its 372nd plenary session (meeting of 27 April 2000) the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 111 votes to one with one abstention.

1. Introduction

1.1. On 7 December 1995, the Council authorised the Commission to negotiate one or more agreements on road transit with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria with a view to resolving the problem of road goods transport relations between Greece and the other Member States, in particular through the mutual exchange of road transport authorisations.

1.2. The Commission initially endeavoured to conclude a multilateral agreement. However, the three countries concerned preferred separate agreements. These will lapse automatically when the three countries accede to the European Union.

1.3. The Commission proposal is based on the Proposal for a Council Decision concerning the signature and conclusion of the Agreements between the European Community and the Republic of Bulgaria establishing certain conditions for the carriage of goods by road and the promotion of Combined Transport (COM(1999) 666 final). However, the ESC opinion covers only the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the distribution of authorisations among Member States received through the Agreements between the European Community and the Republic of Bulgaria and between the European Community and the Republic of Hungary establishing certain conditions for the carriage of goods by road and the promotion of Combined Transport (COM(1999) 667 final).

1.4. The Commission has reached agreement with Hungary and Bulgaria, but not yet with Romania. That is why the proposal under consideration relates only to a Council decision to conclude agreements with Hungary and Bulgaria. The Commission certainly intends to reach agreement with Romania as well in the near future, since the practical value of the agreements with Hungary and Bulgaria would otherwise be minimal.

1.5. Since in the past high, discriminatory fiscal and parafiscal levies were often imposed on road transport in Eastern Europe, the agreements lay down that only non-discriminatory levies or tolls linked with the use of infrastructure may be charged. No special levies or taxes may be introduced for the transport activities themselves.

1.6. It is expressly laid down in the agreements that the authorisations for transit through Bulgaria and Hungary can be used only by vehicles which meet at least the Euro 1 standard.

1.7. In the proposal for a Council Decision to conclude the agreements with Bulgaria and Hungary, it is noted that the 13000 authorisations received annually from Bulgaria and the 12500 received annually from Hungary will be distributed among Member States by a separate Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. The purpose, therefore, of the proposal under consideration is to distribute these authorisations among the Member States.

2. General comments

2.1. The Commission has used the Hungarian transit statistics as the basis for calculating the distribution of transit authorisations.

2.2. Given that the Union's objective in the negotiations is to facilitate transit traffic between Greece and the other Member States along a corridor through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, the Hungarian transit statistics are the most relevant. At all events these statistics must clearly show that journeys with destinations "in the other Member States" have passed through the complete corridor comprising Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Special attention must be paid to journeys passing through the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

2.3. The available Hungarian transit statistics are subdivided by:

- the country of departure;

- the country of registration of the vehicle.

On the basis of these data it is possible to select those journeys which:

- start in Greece;

- are carried out by vehicles registered in each Member State.

2.3.1. Given that the Hungarian transit statistics for the first three quarters of 1998 are available and usable, the Commission proposes to use them as a basis for the distribution among the Member States.

2.3.2. The Committee takes the view that, given the shortage of reliable statistics on road transit traffic, the decision to use the available Hungarian statistics for the first three quarters of 1998 provides the most relevant data.

2.3.3. It wishes to point out, in any case, that the participation of Romania is essential for the proper operation of the corridor between Greece and other Member States. In this context it therefore calls on the Commission to pursue the negotiations with Romania energetically and seek to complete them as soon as possible.

3. Specific comments

3.1. On the basis of the Hungarian transit statistics, the Commission notes that the total number of transits through Hungary with their origin in Greece by vehicles registered in one of the Member States in the first three quarters of 1998 was 6723. Of these journeys 6646 - i.e. almost 99 % - were made by vehicles registered in Greece. For four Member States - Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal - no such journeys were recorded (see appendix).

3.2. On the basis of these - provisional - data, the Commission states that it "is not considered opportune that some 99 % of the authorisations be given to Greece". The Committee takes the view that objective criteria must be followed in order to reflect the real situation. It would therefore urge the Commission to obtain more precise data as soon as possible, giving a reliable picture so that Greece can be treated in the same way as any other Member State.

3.3. The Commission proposes to give a fixed allocation of 100 authorisations to each Member State, this being just under 1 % of the total authorisations available, and to distribute the remaining authorisations among Member States in proportion to the actual number of transit journeys through Hungary made in the first three quarters of 1998.

3.3.1. The Committee takes the view that, given that four Member States had no such transit journeys at all in the first three quarters of 1998 and another six Member States had fewer than five, the flat-rate 100 authorisations for each Member State proposed by the Commission is far too high. It suggests that the number be reduced to 50. That would leave an extra 750 authorisations which could be distributed in proportion to the number of transit journeys in the first three quarters of 1998.

In the Committee's view such a distribution would be fairer and more realistic.

3.4. This means that the number of flat-rate authorisations would be 750 instead of the 1500 proposed by the Commission, and in addition that Greece would receive 12109 authorisations for use in Bulgaria (instead of 11368) and 11614 for use in Hungary (instead of 10874).

3.4.1. This method of calculation also does more justice to the consideration which the Commission itself includes in its proposal for a regulation, namely that "the allocation of authorisations should be based on criteria that take full account of existing land transport flows between Greece and the other Member States".

3.5. The Committee supports the idea expressed by the Commission in Article 4 of the draft regulation: that before 15 September of each year the Member States should return to the Commission the authorisations not likely to be used before the end of that year, so that they can be made available to other Member States.

3.6. If the Commission agrees with the ESC's idea for a fairer distribution key, this would entail a corresponding modification of the annex to the draft regulation.

4. Summary and conclusions

4.1. The Committee takes the view that the Commission's choice of the Hungarian transit statistics provides a suitable statistical basis for a possible distribution of the authorisations.

4.2. In order to make authorisations usable in practice, the Committee regards an early agreement with Romania as being of great importance.

4.3. On the proposed distribution, the Committee points out that, when the statistics used show that one Member State would be entitled to a high percentage of the authorisations, that number of authorisations should in fact be allocated to that state.

4.4. Moreover, bearing in mind the small number of available authorisations, the Committee thinks it undesirable to give each Member State a flat-rate allocation of 100 authorisations. It is clear from the available data that many of the Member States have little or no road transit traffic between Greece and other Member States. The Committee regards a flat-rate allocation of 50 authorisations per Member State as basically adequate.

4.5. The Committee agrees with the Commission's proposal that unused authorisations should be sent back to the Commission before 15 September each year, so that they can still be used by Member States which need them.

Brussels, 27 April 2000.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Beatrice Rangoni Machiavelli

APPENDIX

to the Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee

Distribution of authorisations between Member States

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