Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Regulation (EC) No. 685/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 in order to foresee for the distribution of authorisations among Member States received through the Agreement between the European Community and Romania establishing certain conditions for the carriage of goods by road and the promotion of Combined Transport"
Date: 2001-10-17
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: Romania, carriage of goods, combined transport, road transport, statistics, transport authorisation

8.2.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 36/27

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European
Parliament and of the Council amending the Regulation (EC) No. 685/2001 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 in order to foresee for the distribution of
authorisations among Member States received through the Agreement between the European
Community and Romania establishing certain conditions for the carriage of goods by road and
the promotion of Combined Transport’

(2002/C 36/05)

On 12 July 2001 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 25 September 2001. The
rapporteur was Mr Kielman.

At its 385th plenary session (meeting of 17 October 2001) the Economic and Social Committee adopted
the following opinion with 128 votes in favour and 1 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. One way of
solving this problem is through the mutual exchange of road
transport authorisations.

1.2.
On 19 March 2001 the decisions on the conclusion of
the Agreements with Hungary and Bulgaria were adopted by
the Council.

1.3.
On 4 April 2001 Regulation (EC) No. 685/2001 of the
European Parliament and of the Council was adopted. It sets
out the distribution of authorisations among Member States
received through the Agreements establishing certain con-
ditions for the carriage of goods by road and the promotion of
combined transport between the European Community and
the Republic of Bulgaria and between the European Com-
munity and the Republic of Hungary.

1.4.
The proposal for a Council Decision concerning the
conclusion of the Agreement with Romania stipulates that the
Community will receive 14 000 authorisations annually from
to be distributed among Member States by a
Romania,
regulation.

1.5.
The purpose of this proposal is therefore to distribute
these authorisations among the Member States by amending
Regulation (EC) No. 685/2001 (1).

2. General comments

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

(1) OJ L 108, 18.4.2001, p. 1.

Given that the Union’s objective in the negotiations is
2.2.
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.

The available Hungarian transit statistics are subdivided

2.3.
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 a Member State.

2.3.1.
Given that the Hungarian transit statistics for the
first three quarters of 1998 are available and usable for this
purpose, 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 short-
age 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.

The abovementioned statistics were also used by the
2.3.3.
Commission as a basis for the distribution of authorisations
received under the Agreements with Bulgaria and Hungary.

C 36/28

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Official Journal of the European Communities

8.2.2002

2.3.4.
The Committee agrees with the Commission that it
is appropriate that the same statistical basis is used for the
distribution of those authorisations received from Romania, as
these statistics already reflect the number of transits carried
out by goods vehicles registered in the different Member States
through this complete corridor, i.e. including Romania.

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 6 723. Of these journeys 6 646 — i.e. almost 99 % —
were made by vehicles registered in Greece.

3.1.1.
bourg and Portugal — no such journeys were recorded.

For four Member States — Spain, Ireland, Luxem-

On the basis of these data, the Commission states that
‘is not considered opportune that some 99 % of the

3.2.
it
authorisations be given to Greece’.

The Committee takes the view that where objective
3.2.1.
criteria are used to reflect the real situation, it is not for the
Commission to disadvantage a Member State on the basis of a
completely arbitrary and subjective opinion. It would therefore
urge the Commission to treat Greece in the same way as any
other Member State.

3.3.
In addition, 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.

The Committee takes the view that, given that four
3.3.1.
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

Brussels, 17 October 2001.

suggests that the number be reduced to 50. This number could
be adjusted in the future in the light of experience. The
remaining 750 authorisations could be distributed in pro-
portion to the number of transit journeys in the first three
quarters of 1998.

3.4.
In the Committee’s view such a distribution would be
fairer and more realistic. This means that the number of flat-
rate authorisations would be 750 instead of the 1 500 pro-
posed by the Commission, and in addition that Greece would
receive 13 098 authorisations for use in Romania (instead of
12 357). This method of calculation also does more justice to
the consideration which the Commission itself includes in the
preamble to Regulation (EC) 685/2001 of 4 April 2001,
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.
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

The Committee considers that the Commission’s choice
4.1.
of the Hungarian transit statistics, as laid down in Regulation
(EC) 685/2001 of 4 April 2001, has provided the best possible
statistical basis for the distribution of the authorisations.

4.2.
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 actually be allocated to
that state.

4.3. 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 authoris-
ations. It is clear from the available data that many 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 adequate.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS