Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a directive on the inland transport of dangerous goods
Date: 2008-04-08
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: harmonisation of standards, inland transport, transport of dangerous goods, transport safety

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 8.4.2008 
COM(2008)193 final 

2006/0278 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a directive on the inland transport of 
dangerous goods 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
2006/0278 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a directive on the inland transport of 
dangerous goods 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(2006) 852 final – 2006/0278COD): 

22.12.2006 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

11.07.2007 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

05.09.2007 

Date of adoption of the common position: 

07.04.2008 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The objective of the proposed directive adopted on 22 December 2006 is to ensure the safe 
and secure transport of dangerous goods within the European Union. 

The proposed directive updates and simplifies the existing rules for the transport of dangerous 
goods by integrating the rules into a single harmonised directive. The scope of the directive is 
also extended to include inland waterways for the first time, thereby providing a single set of 
rules for all land transport of dangerous goods in Europe.  

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

The Common Position adopted by the Council on 7 April 2008 reflects the compromise text 
agreed by all three institutions.  

The European Parliament and Council made several amendments to the proposed Directive. A 
package  of  compromise  amendments  was  adopted  by  the  European  Parliament  Plenary  in 
September 2007. The amendments were agreed by all three institutions and it was expected 
that  the  proposed  directive  could  be  agreed  at  first  reading.  However,  two  minor  omissions 
were  discovered  in  the  operative  part  of  the  text  adopted  by  the  EP  (corresponding  recitals 
were adopted). The texts concerning the application of rules for reasons other than safety and 
the financing of translations were omitted. These omissions were simply errors, there was no 
disagreement  on  the  substance  of  the  texts.  The  omissions  were  discovered  too  late  to  be 

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corrected  during  the  first  reading  procedure and thereby necessitated the Council to adopt a 
common position.  

The text of the two omissions are as follows:  

Article 1(5) 

Member States may regulate or prohibit, strictly for reasons other than safety during transport, 
the transport of dangerous goods within their territory  

Article 8(2) 

The Commission shall provide financial support, as appropriate, to the Member states for the 
translation of the ADR, RID and ADN and their modifications into their official language.  

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Council adopted its common position unanimously. The Commission considers that the 
Common  position  reflects  all  of  the  main  objectives  of  its  proposal  and  the  result  of  the 
interinstitutional negotiations. 

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