CELEX: 51975PC0640
Language: en
Date: 1975-12-10
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION ( EEC ) ON A SYSTEM OF REFERENCE TARIFFS FOR THE CARRIAGE OF GOODS BY INLAND WATERWAY BETWEEN MEMBER STATES

No C 54/30                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                  8. 3. 76
              Proposal for a Council Regulation on a system of reference tariffs for the carriage of
                                   goods by inland waterway between Member States
                          (Submitted to the Council by the Commission on 15 December 1975)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                        Whereas, if that system has not always functioned
                                                                optimally, this is due to the structural problems of
                                                                this mode of transport for which solutions have been
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                    decided on or will be in the near future;
European Economic Community, and in particular
Article 75 thereof,
                                                                Whereas such arrangements for establishing rates do
                                                                not, however, rule out systems in which tariffs are
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              established by the trade organizations of the carriers
                                                                themselves, after consulting the relevant socio-
                                                                economic interests, and which individual undertakings
Having regard to       the   opinion  of   the  European        are then recommended to apply;
Parliament,
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                Whereas the publication of voluntary      reference tariffs
Social Committee,                                               may be a stabilizing factor on free       markets, in so
                                                                far as these tariffs reflect the state of the market and
                                                                costs so that the parties to a contract   of carriage may
Whereas the organization of the market for the                  accept them as a reasonable basis          for bargaining
carriage of goods must be designed according to the             about transport rates;
rules of the market economy in order to ensure
optimum allocation of resources;
                                                                Whereas it is unjustifiable to establish reference rates
                                                                for transport via narrow-gauge waterways, in so far
Whereas such design also extends to transport rates             as the trade organizations of undertakings in
and conditions which constitute an important element            transport by inland waterway seek and obtain the
in the common transport policy, the introduction of             consent of the Commission for such exemption;
which is required by the Treaty;
                                                                Whereas, in the event of negotiations in the inland
Whereas, consequently, the fixing of transport rates
and conditions must be the sole responsibility of               shipping sector on the establishment of tariffs or the
                                                                consultation of transport users running into
transport undertakings themselves;
                                                                difficulties, an arbitration procedure under public
                                                                law, by the Commission in the first instance and the
Whereas the policy of the Community with regard                 Council in the second instance, should produce
to rates for the carriage of goods must therefore help          solutions which satisfy the interests of all parties
                                                                concerned;
to maintain the fixing of transport rates and
conditions in accordance with the market economy
on markets where such a system already exists, and
to introduce it progressively to markets where States           Whereas, in order to enable the business circles
still intervene in rate-fixing;                                 concerned to perfect this tariff system and to enable
                                                                the Community to make any changes considered
                                                                necessary, it is essential to establish a system for
Whereas, with the exception of one case where traffic           observing trends in rates on markets for transport
has been subjected unilaterally to tariffs, international       by inland waterway;
transport by inland waterway has not hitherto been
subject to tariff regulation by the authorities;
whereas the system of inland waterway transport                 Whereas the system of reference tariffs shall not affect
rates and conditions based on the rules of a market             obligations arising from Community law; whereas
economy must therefore be maintained;                           in order to check compliance with those obligations,
 ---pagebreak---  S . 3 . 76                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 54/31
the Commission and the Member States must have                 in the Member States concerned, in bilateral or
powers to require the notification to them of the              multilateral negotiations. To this end they shall
 actual transport rates charged,                               consult organizations representing transport users,
                                                               agents and providers of ancillary services, and
                                                               transport workers.
                                                               2. When the negotiations referred to in paragraph
 HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:                                  1 have been concluded, the trade organizations of
                                                               the inland shipping industry shall forthwith ensure
                                                               that the tariffs are published in the trade press and
                                                               recommend their application to contracts for inter-
                        Article 1
                                                               national carriage by inland waterway. Reference
                                                               tariffs shall be available for the consultation of those
This Regulation shall apply to the carriage of goods           participating in the market in the major chartering
for third parties by inland waterway between                   places of international inland waterway transport.
Member States of the European Communities,
including goods coming within the purview of the               3. The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 shall apply
Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel                mutatis mutandis in the event of alterations to the
Community. It shall not apply to cross-frontier                reference tariffs.
inland waterway transport if the place of loading
 and unloading is in the same State.
                                                               4. The Member States shall designate the
                                                               organizations and chartering places referred to in
                                                               paragraphs 1 and 2.
                        Article 2
1. The transport operations referred to in Article 1                                    Article 5
shall be subject to a system of reference tariffs.
                                                               1. If the negotiations referred to in Article 4 with
2. Reference tariffs shall constitute an indication for        a view to altering the reference tariffs fail, the
determining transport rates, which users and                   organizations concerned shall submit the dis-
transport undertakings shall be free to fix at their           agreement to the Commission.
discretion according to the market situation and
their own interests.
                                                               2. Within one month from the date of receipt of
                                                               the information, the Commission shall take a Decision
                        Article 3                              on the matter, after consulting the Committee
                                                               referred to in Article 6, (1) (a) of Council
                                                               Regulation (EEC) No                   (1). This Decision
 1. The system of reference tariffs shall include
                                                               shall be published in the Official Journal of the
bilateral and multilateral tariffs.
                                                               European Communities.
2. Reference tariffs shall be established either on
                                                               3. The Decision of the Commission shall become
the basis of general tariffs or on the basis of special
                                                               enforceable one month from the date of publication
tariffs. They shall be differentiated by all the
                                                               unless, meanwhile, a Member State brings the matter
criteria which contribute to the establishment of rates
                                                               before the Council. In that event the Council shall
which relate to costs and the market situation.
                                                               take a Decision by a qualified majority on the dispute
                                                               within one month and publish the Decision in the
3. Reference tariffs shall incorporate prices and inci-
                                                               Official Journal of the European Communities.
dental charges and all rules required for calculating
the transport rate.
                                                                                       Article 6
4. Reference tariffs shall be established in such a
way as to lead to the charging of transport rates              1. The trade organizations of inland waterway
which cover the costs of the corresponding services            transport undertakings may ask to be exempted,
including general overheads and the like, and a fair           subject to the Commission's authorization, from
profit.                                                        establishing reference tariffs for traffic originating
                        Article 4
                                                               (*) Council Regulation of          concerning a system of
                                                                   observing the markets for the carriage of goods by
1. Reference tariffs shall be established jointly by               rail, road and inland waterway between the Member
the trade associations of inland waterway carriers                 States (OJ No L         ).
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 54/32                          Official Journal of the European Communities                              8. 3. 76
from and terminating in waterways with a gauge                  administrative provisions necessary for the imple-
precluding their use by vessels capable of carrying             mentation of this Regulation.
over 400 metric tons.
                                                                2. At the request of a Member State, or on its own
2. When examining such requests, the Commission                 initiative, the Commission shall consult the Member
shall take particular account of the regularity of the          States with regard to the drafts of the laws and
traffic concerned and its volume and the effect of the          administrative provisions referred to in paragraph 1.
lack of a tariff on the transport market concerned
and on the tariff system as a whole.                            3. The Member States shall afford assistance to each
                                                                other and to the Commission for the purposes of the
                                                                application of this Regulation.
                         Article 7
1. The transport undertakings shall communicate to
                                                                                       Article 10
the Commission and to the competent authorities of
the Member States, upon request, any information
relating to rates operative for the international               The provisions of this Regulation shall not apply to
carriage of goods by inland waterway.                           any obligation covered by the Treaty establishing
                                                                the European Coal and Steel Community.
2. The Commission shall establish, if need be, a
uniform outline programme for these communi-
cations.
                                                                                       Article 11
3. Information regarding individual undertakings
obtained pursuant to this Article shall be covered              Reference tariffs for the carriage of goods by inland
by the obligation of professional secrecy.                      waterway between Member States shall be published
                                                                not later than 31 December 1977. The negotiations
                                                                referred to in Article 4 shall begin as soon as this
                         Article 8
                                                                Regulation enters into force. If there is no result
                                                                before 30 September 1977, the points in dispute will
The Commission shall, by 1 December each year and               be submitted to the Commission as laid down in
after consulting the Advisory Committees provided               Article 5.
for in Article 6 (1) (a) and (b) of Council
Regulation (EEC) N o               (*), draw up a report
on the trends in rates and conditions of transport in
transport by inland waterway between Member                                            Article 12
States.
                                                                This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January
                         Article 9                              1977.
1. After consulting the Commission, the Member                  This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
States shall in due time adopt the legal and                    directly applicable in all Member States.
(*) Council Regulation of          concerning a system of
    observing the markets for the carriage of goods by
    rail, road and inland waterway between the Member
    States (OJ No L         ).