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 Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council establishing common rules concerning the conditions to be complied with to pursue the occupation of road transport operator
Date: 2009-01-12
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: access to a profession, carriage of goods, carriage of passengers, carrier, right of establishment, road transport

EN 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 12.1.2009 
COM(2008) 914 final 

2007/0098 (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 regulation of the European 
Parliament and the Council establishing common rules concerning the conditions to be 
complied with to pursue the occupation of road transport operator 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
  
 
 
2007/0098 (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 regulation of the European 
Parliament and the Council establishing common rules concerning the conditions to be 
complied with to pursue the occupation of road transport operator 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(2007)263 final – 2007/0098COD): 

23 May 2007. 

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

16 January 2008. 

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

21 May 2008. 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

Date of adoption of the common position: 

13 June 2008. 

9.1.2009 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The  objective  of  the  proposal  is  to  establish  common  rules  concerning  conditions  to  be 
complied  with  to  pursue  the  occupation  of  road  transport  operator.  The  proposal  aims  at 
replacing Directive 96/26/EC by a new regulation in order to reach better harmonisation and 
to promote fairer competition between operators within the internal market. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

3.1. General comments on the common position 

Two  elements  were  central  during  the  discussions  in  the  Council.  First,  the  procedure  the 
competent  authorities  have  to  follow  in  case  of  infringements  classified  as  "most  serious 
infringements" and which are included in a new Annex III. Secondly, the electronic register 
that Member States have to establish, its architecture and content as well as the time limits for 
the interconnection and the introducing of data. 

3.2. Detailed Commission comments  

The  common  position  includes  many  of  the  amendments  of  the  European  Parliaments  first 
reading (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 108, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 32, 38, 39, 43, 45, 48, 

EN 

2 

   EN 

 
 
 
49, 56, 61, 65, 67, 68, 69, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 97 and 98). 
All these amendments were acceptable for the Commission. 

Other amendments are included in part (35, 36, 44, 62, 80) or with different deadlines (73, 88, 
100 and 101). The following provisions are also already integrated in the common position: 

–  The definition of the link between the transport manager and the undertaking (21) and the 

request that the manager is resident in the EU (22, 25); 

–  concerning the external manager (article 4, paragraph 2): the common position takes over 
the idea to give the possibility for Member States to allow a total fleet of 50 vehicles per 
external  manager  and  to  lower  this  figure,  but  not  the  possibility  not  to  introduce  such  a 
limitation (109); the common position also reformulates the condition of the independence 
of the external manager (28); 

–  the procedure consecutive to the most serious infringements as set out in Annex III (40, 41, 
42): the common position foresees a similar procedure, but does not include deadlines as 
proposed by the Parliament on the adoption of the list of infringements, nor the comitology 
procedure for the adaptation of Annex III; 

–  the  possibility  for  Member  States  to  exempt  persons  with  a  certain  experience  from  the 
exam (52); however the common position requests a higher number of years of experience 
(15 years, article 8a new); 

–  the Annex III (amendment 104) on the most serious infringements in an adapted version; 

–  the approach to adapt the periodicity of checks of undertakings to technical progress (59); 
however,  the  common  position  proposes  to  target  checks  on  undertakings  posing  an 
increased risk from 2015 on; until then a check has to take place every five years. 

Concerning the register (article 15, amendments 70, 71, 72, 73, 74), Parliament and Council 
supported the establishment and the interconnection of electronic registers on road transport 
undertakings in a stepwise approach, but proposed different timetables. 

In addition to the Commission proposal, both the first reading and the common position give 
the  possibility  to  create  a  separate  register  on  the  infringements  and  the  transport  managers 
who are declared unfit to manage an undertaking. According to the common position, these 
managers should remain not only two years in the registers, but as long as the good repute is 
not re-established. 

The  Parliament  proposed  in  its  first  reading  to  have  a  public  and  a  private  section  of  the 
register,  the  latter  being  only  accessible  to  competent  authorities  under  special  conditions 
(endowed  with  specific  powers  in  the  road  transport  sphere  and  sworn  officials).  The 
Parliament  proposes  further  that  a  register  on  transport  managers  should  be  created.  These 
proposals were not integrated in the common position.  

While the first reading of the Parliament requests in addition the inclusion in the register of 
the vehicle registration marks of vehicles operated outside the Member State of establishment, 
the common position states that the Commission may give in 2009 a recommendation on the 
inclusion of vehicle registration marks. This last provision was part of the final compromise in 
the Council negotiations. 

EN 

3 

   EN 

 
Furthermore,  the  common  position  has  not  integrated  the  following  provisions  which  could 
have been acceptable or acceptable in principle for the Commission: 

–  a stricter scope for the exception for the non-commercial transport of passengers from the 

regulation (amendment 107); 

–  the  reference  to  secure  data  supports  as  a  condition  relating  to  the  requirement  as  to 

establishment (31); 

–  the request to adapt the exchange rate for currencies yearly instead of every 5 years (46); 

–  the  request  that  the  criteria  for  the  accreditation  of  the  bodies  for  the  training  and  the 

examination of transport manager applicants are mutually compatible (51); 

–  the possibility for Member States to promote regular training for transport managers (53); 

–  the  request  that  the  competent  authority  is  responsible  for  updating  and  maintaining  the 

electronic registers (57); 

–  the shortening of the time limits for an undertaking to demonstrate that it has an effective 

and stable establishment (64); 

–  the  proposal  that  Member  States  inform  the  Commission  about  the  certificates  they 

recognise as proof of professional competence (86); 

–  the reformulation of the reference to the "regulatory procedure with scrutiny and curtailed 

time limits" (96); the common position removes this procedure. 

The common position does not include the following provisions which were not acceptable or 
not acceptable in the proposed wording for the Commission: 

–  the reformulation of the requirement on parking places, where the Parliament replaces the 
request  to  have  a  sufficient  number  of  parking  places  by  a  request  to  be  able  to  prove 
where the vehicles are parked (111); the Council has deleted this provision; 

–  the  reference  to  archiving  of  data  and  data  protection  as  Community  rules  whose  non 

respect could put into question the good repute of a transport manager (37); 

–  the second part of amendment 44, saying that the capital resources are to be demonstrated 

by means of a certified trading balance sheet or a balance sheet for tax purposes; 

–  the  obligation  to  pass  the  exam  on  the  professional  competence  in  the  Member  State  of 

residence (50); 

–  the  obligation  for  transport  managers,  after  a  five  year  period  of  absence,  to  undertake  a 

retraining (113); 

–  the reference to an interdiction to transfer the certificate on the professional competence to 

legal persons (55); 

–  to control only "in case of doubt" even after the interconnection of the registers whether the 

transport manager is declared unfit to manage the transport activity (58); 

EN 

4 

   EN 

 
–  the shortening of the time limits for an undertaking to replace a transport manager (63); 

–  the  deletion  of  the  possibility  to  postpone  via  the  regulatory  procedure  with  scrutiny  the 

interconnection of the national registers (116); 

–  the demand for a study on the possible inclusion of taxis into the scope of the regulation 

(99); 

–  the proposed date of 1 June 2009 for the application of the regulation (103); the common 

position foresees to apply the regulation 24 months after its entry into force. 

The common position also includes the following new provisions: 

–  reference to animal transport as rules against which a transport manager or an undertaking 

may not have infringed (Article 6, paragraph 1, subparagraph b); 

–  the  possibility  for  Member  States  to  issue  different  authorisations  for  undertakings  only 

performing national transport (Article 10, paragraph 1); 

–  the  possibility  for  Member  States  to  extend  the  time  limit  for  the  examination  of  the 

application of an authorisation (Article 10, paragraph 3); 

–  the possibility for Member States to shorten the delay within which the undertaking has to 
inform  about  changes  concerning  the  data  used  for  the  application  of  the  authorisation 
(Article 10, paragraph 5); 

–  a  change  in  the  formulation  of  what  an  undertaking  has  to  demonstrate  when  the 
requirement  as  to  the  financial  standing  is  no  longer  satisfied  (Article  12,  paragraph  1, 
point c); 

–  more  detailed  description  on  the  rules  on  the  electronic  registers  to  be  adopted  by  the 

Commission in accordance with the comitology procedure (Article 15, paragraph 5); 

–  a simplification on the report that Member States have to give on the pursuit of occupation 

(Article 26). 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Council adopted its common position by qualified majority. The Commission considers 
that  the  common  position  reflects  the  main  objectives  of  its  proposal  and  can  therefore 
support it. 

EN 

5 

   EN