COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic freight transport information
Date: 2020-04-15
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: carriage of goods, common transport policy, data processing, electronic document, exchange of information, information technology, transport document

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 15.4.2020  COM(2020) 118 final 2018/0140 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic freight transport information (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
 
2018/0140 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council on electronic freight transport information 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

The proposal for a Regulation on electronic freight transport information (eFTI) was adopted 
by the Commission on 17 May 2018 as part of the third ‘Europe on the move’ package. The 
aim of the proposal is to reduce administrative burden and improve efficiency in transport and 
logistics by enabling digital exchanges in business to authority relations.  

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and to 
the Council 
(document COM(2018) 279 final – 2018/0140 COD): 

17 May 2018. 

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

17 October 2018. 

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

12 March 2019. 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

N/A. 

7 April 2020. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The  Commission  proposal  constitutes  a  new  legislative  initiative  that  aims  to  reduce 
administrative burden and enhance the efficiency of the transport sector, by establishing the 
conditions for wider use of digital technologies for regulatory information exchanges between 
the economic operators and the authorities. It lays down a set of uniform requirements for the 
exchange in electronic format of regulatory information concerning the goods transported on 
the EU territory. 

The Commission proposal does  not set new information  requirements. Rather, it establishes 
the  conditions  under  which  authorities  are  obliged  to  accept  information  presented  in 
electronic format. The main condition is that the economic operators use secure and certified 
information and communication technology-based platforms when presenting the information 
electronically  to  the  authorities.  At  the  same  time,  the  Commission  proposal  requires  the 
authorities to use a set of common rules and procedures, including technical specifications, for 
accessing  and  processing  the  information  provided  electronically  by  the  operators.  The 
operators will have the option, but not the obligation, to use these electronic means instead of 
paper.  

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The  new  digital  environment  will  rely  primarily  on  machine-to-machine  information 
exchanges,  although  human-readable  “document”  formats  will  continue  to  be  supported  to 
ensure that the authorities may carry out their enforcement duties in all circumstances.  

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  position  of  the  Council  fully  reflects  the  political  agreement  reached  between  the 
European Parliament and the Council on 27 November 2019. The Commission supports this 
agreement, as it remains closely in line with the objectives of the Commission proposal and 
with all the main specific provisions proposed by the Commission to ensure the achievement 
of  those  objectives.  The  changes  introduced  by  the  Council  aim  at  further  clarifying  or 
detailing  the  provisions  in  the  Commission  proposal.  That  includes  the  amendments 
concerning  the  core  elements  of  the  proposal  –  scope,  aspects  to  be  further  determined  by 
means of implementing and delegated acts, period of implementation and future review: 

  The  Commission  proposal  established  a  well-defined  and  focused  scope  of  the 
information requirements to which the Regulation applies, as set out in a number of EU 
and national legal acts governing the transport of goods on the Union territory, listed or to 
be listed in Annex I to the Regulation. The Council position preserved that focused scope 
but kept only the references to the relevant articles of the respective EU acts and moved 
these references from the Annex into the body of the Regulation. The Council added also 
a  reference  to  future  implementing  or  delegated  acts  of  the  Directive  2016/797/EU  on 
interoperability  in  the  rail  sector,  in  case  such  acts  are  adopted  or  amended  to  include 
information requirements that fall under the Regulation’s scope. On substance, the scope 
of  application  of  the  Regulation  remains  unchanged  in  the  Council  position,  and  these 
amendments are acceptable to the Commission.  

  Given the highly technical nature of the implementation of the future eFTI environment, 
the Commission proposal did not prescribe all the details of the system’s architecture, but 
only  its  main  components  and  the  functionality  requirements  these  components  would 
have  to  satisfy.  The  detailed  rules  and  technical  specifications  were  proposed  to  be 
adopted at a later stage through Commission acts, mostly implementing acts. In line with 
the Commission’s objectives, the Council added further guidance on the adoption of these 
rules  and  technical  specifications,  notably  that  the  Commission  seeks  interoperability  of 
the eFTI common data set and eFTI subsets with relevant data models that are accepted 
internationally  or  at  Union  level,  and  that  any  specifications  adopted  in  respect  of  eFTI 
platforms  remain,  to  the  largest  extent  possible,  technologically  neutral.  The  Council 
position  also  changed  the  nature  of  the  powers  conferred  to  the  Commission  –  from 
implementing  to  delegated  powers  –  for  the  establishment  of  the  eFTI  common  data  set 
and eFTI data subsets corresponding to the regulatory information under the Regulation’s 
scope. The latter change came also in response to European Parliament’s position, which, 
in  first  reading  called  for  greater  involvement  of  the  Parliament  in  the  adoption  of  the 
detailed rules, and it has been supported by the Commission. 

  The  Council  position  also  introduced  specific  timelines  for  the  adoption  of  most 
implementing  and  delegated  acts,  and  deferred  by  one  year  the  time  by  which  Member 
States  must  start  accepting  regulatory  information  made  available  electronically  by  the 
economic  operators.  Overall,  the  result  is  balanced  though  ambitious.  It  allows  all 
stakeholders  –  Commission,  Member  States  authorities  and  private  sector  actors  –  to 
prepare for and deliver in a timely manner on their obligations under this Regulation.  

  Last but not least, the Council position added a number of details on the scope and focus 
the 

the  Commission’s  evaluation  of 

that  should  accompany 

of  an  assessment 

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implementation  of  the  Regulation,  within  four  and  a  half  years  from  the  start  date  of 
application  of  the  Regulation.  In  particular,  the  Commission  is  requested  to  assess 
possible initiatives aimed at establishing: 

the  obligation  of  the  economic  operators  to  use  electronic  means  instead  of  paper 

a) 
means for making the regulatory information available to the authorities; and  

b) 
the  interoperability  and  interconnectivity  between  the  eFTI  environment  and  the 
different  systems  currently  used  by  authorities  to  record  and  access  regulatory  information 
under other EU transport acts that were not included into the scope of this Regulation. 

These additions are in line with the Commission’s policy objectives, while the text remains in 
line with the Commission’s institutional prerogatives. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  agrees  with  the  position  adopted  by  the  Council  in  first  reading.  This 
position  fully  reflects  the  outcome  of  the  negotiations  between  the  three  Institutions.  The 
adoption  by  the  European  Parliament  of  this  agreed  text  in  a  second  reading  will  mark  an 
important  milestone  towards  delivering  on  the  shared  objectives  of  reducing  administrative 
burden, improving rule enforcement and promoting decisive steps on the part of the transport 
and logistics sector towards the much-needed digital transformation.  

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