WRITTEN QUESTION E-1981/00 by Freddy Blak (PSE) to the Council. Rules governing working hours of professional drivers.
Date: 2000-06-21
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: common transport policy, drivers, driving period, international road transport

20.3.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 89 E/123

These are the only cases relating to participation in public affairs in which officials are required to make
application to take leave on personal grounds.

The Commission believes that these rules leave sufficient freedom and margin for discretion both for
candidates in local elections and for their employer. The Commission consequently considers that these
rules do not unreasonably impede the right of officials to be politically active, or to be candidates for
election, or to be elected representatives at any level, and do not conflict with the involvement of officials
in the public life and democratic processes of the Member States in which they reside.

The Commission is not, therefore, giving consideration to changing these rules.

The only action taken by the Commission in anticipation of the forthcoming local council elections in
Belgium was to assist officials by sending out an Information Notice on the internal Netscape drawing
attention to the fact that (cid:145)On 27 January 1999, Belgium adopted a law implementing Council Directive 94/
80/EC of 19 December 1994 whereby non-Belgian citizens of the European Union residing in Belgium
may exercise the right to vote in local elections(cid:146) and advising officials who fulfil the Union citizen,
residence and other qualifications of their rights to register for a vote, to vote, and to stand as candidates.

(2001/C 89 E/134)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1981/00

by Freddy Blak (PSE) to the Council

(21 June 2000)

Subject: Rules governing working hours of professional drivers

Surveys by an international research team show that tiredness is the cause of far more traffic accidents on
Europe(cid:146)s roads than previously assumed. Tired motorists are to blame for around 100 000 road accidents
each year.

One survey shows that accidents caused by tiredness are not due primarily to long working hours but
rather to the time of day or night, the number of hours that have elapsed since getting up and the length
of time previously spent asleep. It is therefore extremely important to regulate rest periods for professional
drivers in Europe.

The driving and rest periods of professional drivers are at present regulated by a number of directives (cid:129)
and yet coverage is still patchy. The new proposal for a directive on the working hours of professional
drivers is at present held up in the Council (transport).

When will the negotiations get going again so that all professional drivers can be covered by a single
directive?

What thought is being given to ensuring that professional drivers from third countries are brought within
the scope of these provisions as rapidly as possible?

Reply

(23 October 2000)

At present all drivers engaged in transporting goods by road within the Community are subject to the
same rules as regards driving hours and rest periods, namely the common rules laid down by Regulation
(EEC) No 3820/85 (1). That Regulation permits Member States to lay down stricter rules for national
transport.

Drivers from third countries which are parties to the European Agreement concerning the Work of Crews
of Vehicles engaged in International Road Transport (AETR) are subject to similar provisions.

C 89 E/124

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.3.2001

Directive 2000/34/EC of 22 June 2000 amending Directive 93/104/EC concerning certain aspects of the
organisation of working time to cover sectors and activities excluded from that Directive (2) provides that
certain provisions of the amended Directive apply to mobile workers in the road, air, inland waterway and
lake transport and sea fishing sectors, namely the general provisions which guarantee adequate rest
periods, a maximum working week of 48 hours, four weeks annual paid holiday and health and safety
checks. The definition of working time has been left to the Member States.

The proposal for a specific Directive for road transport, submitted by the Commission in November 1998,
is currently being examined by the Council(cid:146)s subordinate bodies.

In addition, on 22 June 2000, the Commission submitted to the European Parliament and to the Council a
communication indicating the actions needed for the deployment of a global and coherent policy covering
such aspects as road safety and competition in the road transport sector, as well as the economic and
social aspects. The communication also covers the organisation of working time for drivers.

The Council has recently begun examining the communication against the background of the current
blockage of discussions on the proposal for a Directive.

(1) Council Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 of 20 December 1985 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation

relating to road transport (OJ L 380, 31.12.1985, p. 1).

(2) Not yet published in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

(2001/C 89 E/135)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1999/00

by Armando Cossutta (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(21 June 2000)

Subject: Latvia: anti-Nazism

Vasili Kononov was 20 years old in 1943, and like many young Europeans at that time fought as
a partisan against the Nazi army occupying Latvia, and by the end of the war had won a number of
decorations.

Now in his late seventies, Kononov is currently in prison in Riga, accused of having killed nine civilians in
a partisan attack on a village 300 km away from the capital. The accusation is based on the testimony of
an eye-witness, Maria Kuznetsova, who has subsequently denied the version of events she gave in court
and claims that the bodies found in the village at the time were not civilians who had been killed by
partisans, but partisans who had been killed by Nazis.

Meanwhile another Latvian citizen, Konrad Kalejs, who used to be a member of a military unit known as
(cid:145)Arajs Kommando(cid:146) which collaborated with the Nazis, has been accused of the death of 30 000 Jews,
Communists and gypsies. After being discovered in London and expelled from the UK, he returned to
Australia, of which he has become a national, and went into hiding. The President of Latvia, Vaira Vika-
Friberga, has spoken to the international press of his reservations about the advisability of prosecuting the
former Nazi collaborator, commenting that he believes in divine retribution.

1.
Does the Council consider that the Latvian authorities(cid:146) conduct in relation to these two cases is
consistent with the values which form the basis of the European Union, to which Latvia is shortly due to
accede?

2.
Does the Council not consider that it should bring pressure to bear on the Latvian authorities to
ensure, firstly, that Kononov is released and, secondly, that his rights as a citizen and as an anti-Nazi ex-
combatant are upheld?

3.
Does the Council not consider that it should call on the Latvian authorities to make every effort to
track Kalejs down and ascertain what part he played in the genocide unleashed throughout Europe against
Jews, Roma and Communists?