Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 of the Council introducing an accounting system for expenditure on infrastructure in respect of transport by rail, road and inland waterway, and Commission Regulation (EC) No 851/2006 specifying the items to be included under the various headings in the forms of accounts shown in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70
Date: 2022-08-03
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: accounting, accounting system, codification of EU law, data collection, inland waterway transport, rail transport, road transport, transport infrastructure

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 3.8.2022  COM(2022) 381 final 2022/0232 (COD)  Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 of the Council introducing an accounting system for expenditure on infrastructure in respect of transport by rail, road and inland waterway, and Commission Regulation (EC) No 851/2006 specifying the items to be included under the various headings in the forms of accounts shown in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70  
 
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1. 

CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 

This  proposal  for  a  regulation  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  repealing 
Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 and Regulation (EC) No 851/2006 is submitted in the context 
of the Commission’s REFIT programme1 and commitment on better regulation. The objective 
is to ensure 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-Making2.  To  that  end,  the 
Commission has identified these obsolete acts that the Commission is proposing to repeal.  

The Commission announced its intention to repeal Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 in its work 
programme for 20203. Based on Article 91 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European 
Union (ex Article 71 TEC and ex Article 75 TEEC), Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 requires 
the collection of infrastructure expenditure data for rail, road and inland waterways, as well as 
the  collection  of  statistics  about  the  use  of  the  corresponding  infrastructure.  The  main 
objective of the Regulation was to collect information on transport infrastructure expenditure 
and  transport  infrastructure  use  (‘returns’)  in  the  Member  States  for  the  development  of  a 
system of charging for the use of infrastructure under the common transport policy. 

Given  the  difficulties  encountered  by  Member  States  in  reporting  the  requested  data, 
Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 has been amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1384/794. 
This Regulation has introduced simplifications and corrections, with the aim of making data 
requirements lighter. Four further amendments to Regulation (EEC) No 1108/705 were made 
following the accession of new Member States. 

In  addition,  Regulation  (EEC)  No 2598/706,  as  amended  by  Commission  Regulation  (EEC) 
No 2116/787, Commission Regulation (EC) No 906/2004, and Commission Regulation (EC) 
No 851/20068, has provided definitions of some of the items that should be included under the 
various headings of the accounts set by Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70.  

In  accordance  with  Article 9(3)  of  Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70  the  Commission  should 
submit a summary report  to  the Council every  year,  with  the main statistics about  transport 
infrastructure  expenditure  and  use.  To  date,  15  reports  have  been  submitted  by  the 
Commission.  The  15th  report  from  the  Commission  to  the  Council  and  the  European 

1  https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-making-process/evaluating-and-improving-existing-laws/refit-making-eu-

law-simpler-less-costly-and-future-proof_en 

2  OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1. 
3  COM(2020) 37 final - ANNEX 5. 
4  OJ L 167, 5.7.1979, p. 1. 
5  Council Regulation (EEC) No 3021/81, OJ L 302, 23.10.1981, p. 8; Council Regulation (EEC) No 3572/90, 
OJ  L  353,  17.12.1990,  p. 12;  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No 1791/2006,  OJ  L  363,  20.12.2006,  p. 1;  and 
Council Regulation (EU) No 517/2013, OJ L 158, 10.6.2013, p. 1. 

6  OJ L 278, 23.12.1970, p. 1. 
7  OJ L 246, 8.9.1978, p. 7. 
8  OJ L 158, 10.6.2006, p. 3. 

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Parliament  on  expenditure  on  and  on  utilization  of  rail,  road  and  inland  waterway 
infrastructure,  covering  data  from  1987  to  1989,  was  published  in  19949.  Despite  repeated 
reminders, several Member States failed to supply all the data for the years under review or 
did not supply the data in the form required by the Regulation. This undermined the regularity 
of publications and meant that EU aggregates could not be calculated. 

The  Commission  has  not  prepared  any  new  reports  since  1998,  mainly  because  it  hardly 
received  any  data  from  Member  States  and  the  data  it  did  receive  were  mostly  incomplete. 
Since  2005,  only  four  Member  States  have  reported  infrastructure  investment  data  to  the 
Commission on the basis of Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70.  

In addition, the definitions and classifications used in the Regulation have become obsolete. 
The most striking examples are Sections A.1 and A.2 of Annex II to the Regulation, which list 
all  the  railway  operators  in  Europe  for  which  Member  States  should  collect  the  respective 
infrastructure  expenditure,  ignoring  the  process  of  market  opening  of  the  rail  sector 
introduced  by  the  various  rail  packages  and  the  changes  in  governance,  in  particular  the 
separation between infrastructure managers and railway companies that occurred for some of 
the companies mentioned in the Annex. It is also not recommendable to list in a legislative act 
the  company  names  of  the  railway  operators,  since  they  might  change  over  time  due  to 
reorganisations and thus make the Annex quickly obsolete.  

Furthermore, many concepts and classifications are outdated (e.g. passenger trains classified 
as  ‘long-distance  express  trains  and  express  trains’  and  ‘others’;  goods  trains  classified  as 
‘rapid service’ and ‘ordinary service’; ‘kilometres worked’ which is usually referred to just as 
‘kilometres’) and lacking an appropriate definition. Others are incompatible with the current 
classifications.  For  example,  the  Regulation  asks  for  indicators  for  the  category  ‘vans  with 
total  permitted  laden  weight  of  less  than  3  metric  tonnes’,  while  the  current  legislation  - 
Regulations  (EC)  No 1071/200910  and  (EC)  No 1072/200911  -  is  directed  to  light  utility 
vehicles with a maximum permissible laden weight of between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes). 

2. 

RESULTS  OF  CONSULTATION  WITH 
ASSESSMENT 

INTERESTED  PARTIES  AND 

INTERNAL 

2.1. Consultation 

In  2017,  the  Commission  carried  out  a  targeted  consultation  of  national  statistical  institutes 
about the difficulties experienced by Member States in complying with the requirements set 
by  Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70.  The  consultation’s  main  conclusion  was  that  data  on 
transport infrastructure expenditure was generally available at ministry level, although not at 
the  level  of  detail  required  by  the  legislation.  Traffic  statistics  relating  to  transport 
infrastructure use (‘returns’) were less  available. This  information  is  collected in  general  by 
national statistical institutes, according to different sectoral statistical regulations (Regulation 
(EU)  No 70/2012  on  statistical  returns  in  respect  of  the  carriage  of  goods  by  road12, 

9  COM(94) 47. 
10  OJ L 300, 14.11.2009, p. 51. 
11  OJ L 300, 14.11.2009, p.72. 
12  OJ L 32, 3.2.2012, p. 1. 

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Regulation  (EU)  2018/974  on  statistics  of  goods  transport  by  inland  waterways13,  and 
Regulation (EU) 2018/643 on rail transport statistics14). However, the breakdowns required by 
Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 are mostly unavailable. 

Based on the information collected from the 15 reports and from the consultation of national 
statistical  institutes,  the  relevant  Commission  department  has  assessed  Regulation  (EEC) 
No 1108/70  in  terms  of its  effectiveness  and  efficiency,  coherence,  relevance  and  EU  value 
added.  

Effectiveness  and  efficiency:  Because  of  the  low  levels  of  reporting  required,  and  the 
technical difficulties in collecting the data, the Regulation remains an excessively burdensome 
data collection exercise for the Member States rather than an effective and efficient exercise.  

Coherence:  Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70  partly  overlaps  with  other,  more  recent  data 
collection  rules  currently  in  force.  With  regard  to  data  on  infrastructure  expenditure,  the 
clearest  overlap  is  with  the  data  collection  under  the  TEN-T  Regulation  (Regulation  (EU) 
No 1315/2013)15, which collects  a  substantial amount of technical  and financial information 
on the TEN-T core and comprehensive networks. The Rail Market Monitoring Survey, based 
on  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2015/110016,  also  collects  information  on 
railways  in  Europe,  including  on  rail  infrastructure  expenditure  for  maintenance,  renewals, 
upgrades  and  new  infrastructure.  Regarding  data  on  infrastructure  use,  Eurostat  collects 
various statistics on road freight transport, rail transport and inland waterways transport that 
partially  overlap  with  Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70  traffic  indicators.  The  International 
Transport Forum (ITF/OECD) has regularly collected information on transport infrastructure 
and  maintenance  from  its  members  since  1995,  and  published  expenditure  figures  for  road 
(also  providing  separate  data  for  motorways),  rail,  inland  waterways,  maritime  ports  and 
airports. Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 is therefore inconsistent and incompatible with these 
more recent legal acts obliging Member States to report on transport infrastructure investment 
data. 

Relevance: Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 was drafted at a time when the three inland modes 
of transport played the biggest role in the transport policy for the nine Member States of the 
European  Economic  Community.  Inland  transport  remains  the  most  relevant  mode  of 
transport  within  Europe,  but  the  process  of  globalisation  and  the  increase  in  aviation 
accessibility  and  connectivity  put  an  additional  focus  on  the  infrastructure  expenditure  for 
maritime ports and aviation, which is not covered by the Regulation. 

EU  added  value:  There  is  clear  added  value  in  having  a  single  data  source  for  transport 
infrastructure expenditure at European level (which is currently lacking) rather than obtaining 
this  information  from  each  Member  State  separately.  However,  because  of  the  low  level  of 
detail required and technical difficulties in collecting the data, only four Member States have 

13  OJ L 179, 16.7.2018, p. 14. 
14  OJ L 112, 2.5.2018, p. 1. 
15  OJ L 348, 20.12.2013, p. 1. 
16  OJ L 181, 9.7.2015, p. 1. 

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been reporting this information. The information received is not used for any policy initiative 
or technical analysis. 

In  conclusion,  Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70  has  become  obsolete  and  the  data  that  would 
have been collected under the Regulation have either become available from other sources or 
are no longer needed in the form and specifications required under the Regulation. Therefore, 
Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70, should be repealed. This will eliminate inconsistencies in the 
EU  legal  order  and  will  help  simplify  EU  legislation  by  eliminating  a  legal  act  that  is  now 
obsolete. 

Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 851/2006  specifying  the  items  to  be  included  under  the 
various  headings  in  the  forms  of  accounts  shown  in  Annex  I  to  Council  Regulation  (EEC) 
No 1108/70 should be repealed as well.  

2.2. Impacts of the repeal 

Based  on  the  analysis  of  the  information  collected  from  the  15  reports  and  of  the  data 
provided since 2015 by only four Member States, the impact of a repeal of the Regulation is 
considered to be negligible.  

For  the  four  Member  States  that  currently  report  data,  the  administrative  burden  will  be 
reduced. 

3. 

LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL 

The  proposal  consists  of  a  repeal  of  Regulation  of  the  Council  (EEC)  No 1108/70  and  of 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 851/2006.  

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2022/0232 (COD) 

Proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

on repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 of the Council introducing an accounting 
system for expenditure on infrastructure in respect of transport by rail, road and inland 
waterway, and Commission Regulation (EC) No 851/2006 specifying the items to be 
included under the various headings in the forms of accounts shown in Annex I to 
Council Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union,  and  in  particular 
Article 91 thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, 

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee17,  
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions18,  

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, 

Whereas: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

The  European  Parliament,  the  Council  of  the  European  Union  and  the  European 
Commission have confirmed their joint commitment to update and simplify legislation 
in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making of 13 April 201619. 

In order to clean-up and reduce the volume of the legislative acquis, it is appropriate to 
regularly analyse it and identify obsolete legislation. Repealing the obsolete legislation 
is  useful  for  keeping  the  legislative  framework  transparent,  clear  and  easy  to  use  by 
Member States and relevant stakeholders. 
Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70  of  the  Council20  requires  Member  States  to  report  on 
infrastructure expenditure for rail, road and inland waterways transport, as well as on 
returns relating to the use of the infrastructure.  

Regulation  (EEC) No 1108/70  is  based on obsolete provisions and definitions and is 
inconsistent  and  incompatible  with  other,  more  recent  legal  acts  currently  in  force 
obliging  Member  States  to  report  on  transport  infrastructure  investment  data  and 
infrastructure use. 

17 
OJ C , , p. . 
18 
OJ C , , p. . 
19  OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1. 
20 
     expenditure on infrastructure in respect of transport by rail, road and inland waterway (OJ L 130,    
     15.6.1970, p.4). 

Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70 of the Council of 4 June 1970 introducing an accounting system for  

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(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70  is  linked  with  excessive  administrative  difficulties  in 
collecting  the  data.  Since  2005,  only  four  Member  States  have  provided  the  data 
required by the Regulation. 

therefore  be 

(EEC)  No 1108/70  should 

Regulation 
to  eliminate 
inconsistencies in the Union legal order and this should contribute to simplification of 
EU legislation by eliminating a legal act which is now obsolete.  
As  Regulation  (EC)  No 851/200621  implements  Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70,  its 
purpose  expires  with  the  repeal  of  Regulation  (EEC)  No 1108/70.  Regulation  (EC) 
No 851/2006 should therefore also be repealed. 

repealed 

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Regulations (EEC) No 1108/70 and (EC) No 851/2006 are repealed. 

Article 1 

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in 
the Official Journal of the European Union. 

Article 2 

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

For the European Parliament 
The President 

For the Council 
The President 

21 

Commission  Regulation (EC) No 851/2006 of 9 June 2006 specifying the items  to be  included under 
the    

     various headings in the forms of accounts shown in Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1108/70  
     (OJ L 158, 10.6.2006, p. 3). 

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