Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 1101/89, Regulations (EC) No 2888/2000 and (EC) No 685/2001’ (COM(2016) 745 final — 2016/0368 (COD))
Date: 2017-03-29
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: Bulgaria, Hungary, Switzerland, approximation of laws, carriage of goods, combined transport, inland transport, inland waterway shipping, road transport, transport document








C_2017209EN.01005801.xml










30.6.2017   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 209/58





Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 1101/89, Regulations (EC) No 2888/2000 and (EC) No 685/2001’
(COM(2016) 745 final — 2016/0368 (COD))
(2017/C 209/10)






Rapporteur:



Jan SIMONS











Consultation


European Parliament, 12.12.2016
Council of the European Union, 19.12.2016




Legal basis


Articles 19 and 304 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union




Section responsible


Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society




Adopted in section


15.3.2017




Adopted at plenary


29.3.2017




Plenary session No


524




Outcome of vote
(for/against/abstentions)


228/3/0




1.   Conclusions and recommendations









1.1.


Having consulted the relevant stakeholder organisations, the EESC has come to the conclusion that the Commission’s proposal for a Regulation repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1101/89 (temporary scrapping scheme for inland waterway transport), Regulation (EC) No 2888/2000 (distribution of permits for goods transport in Switzerland) and Regulation (EC) No 685/2001 (authorisations for goods transport in Romania and Bulgaria before their accession to the EU) can be endorsed.




2.   Background









2.1.


As part of the REFIT programme and the commitment to better regulation, and with the aim of ensuring a legislative framework that is fit for purpose and of high quality, as referred to in the Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on Better Law-Making, the Commission is proposing to repeal three Regulations that have become obsolete.












2.1.1.


The first is the temporary scrapping scheme for inland waterway transport from 1989; the relevant capacity-management tools in this Regulation were preserved in Regulation (EC) No 718/1999 10 years later, but the 1989 Regulation was not repealed.












2.1.2.


The proposal also relates to two Regulations on road transport.












2.1.2.1.


One, dating from 2000, relates to the distribution among the Member States of Swiss quotas for heavy goods vehicles; under an agreement between the EU and the Swiss Confederation, these heavy goods vehicles have been exempt from any quota or authorisation arrangements since 1 January 2005.












2.1.2.2.


The other concerns the distribution among the Member States at the time of authorisations giving access to the haulage market in Bulgaria and Romania, before they joined the EU in 2007. The accession of these two countries to the EU in 2007 means that such authorisations are no longer required.




3.   General comments









3.1.


The EESC has consistently supported the idea that the legislative framework needs to be fit for purpose and of high quality, but must remain transparent, clear and easy to use by Member States and stakeholders, in this case the inland waterways transport and road haulage sectors.












3.2.


In view of the (different) reasons given for repealing the Regulations in question, the EESC considers it only logical to do so.












3.3.


The EESC does, however, note that the Commission has indicated that consultations with the interested parties and impact assessments are ‘not applicable’. The proposal does in fact have an impact, and even a positive one — specifically the aspects mentioned in point 3.1 above — and it never hurts to carry out consultations, even if only to be on the safe side.












3.4.


The EESC therefore surveyed representatives of relevant industry associations. This did not bring to light any objections to the Commission’s proposal to repeal the three Regulations.





Brussels, 29 March 2017.


The President of the European Economic and Social Committee

Georges DASSIS