CELEX: 31973H0203
Language: en
Date: 1973-05-23 00:00:00
Title: 73/203/EEC: Commission Recommendation of 23 May 1973 addressed to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark on a draft law concerning the transport of goods by motor vehicle

17. 7. 73                             Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 197/49
                                         COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION
                                                      of 23 May 1973
              addressed to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark on a draft law concerning the
                                           transport of goods by motor vehicle
                                                        (73/203/EEC)
In accordance with Article 1 of the Council Decision              the occupation of carrier subject to certain conditions
(*) of 21 March 1962 instituting a procedure for prior            regarding financial means and professional com­
examination and consultation in respect of certain                petence and, secondly, to regulate all road transport,
laws, Regulations and administrative provisions con­              with the exception of that effected by vehicles of a
cerning transport proposed in Member States, the                  total laden weight not exceeding 6 metric tons.
Danish Government forwarded to the Commission ,
in a letter of 21 March 1973 from the Office of its               The introduction of rules governing access to the
Permanent Representative to the European Commu­                   market in the transport of goods by road is, as a
nities, the texts of a draft law concerning the                   general principle, in line with the objectives pursued
transport of goods by motor vehicle and the explana­               by the common transport policy.
tory memorandum thereto. ■
                                                                  However, the adoption of such measures on the in­
This letter reached the Commission on 25 March                    itiative of certain Member States in the framework
 1973 .
                                                                  of their own national legislation is not likely to pro­
                                                                   mote the implementation of that policy. For such a
The Danish Government also notified the other                     policy to be introduced and for its objectives to be
Member States of the bill .                                       attained, the measures in question must be adopted
                                                                  at Community level within the institutional frame­
At the Commission 's suggestion, a briefing session               work of the Treaty, and they must be implemented
with the representatives of the Danish Government                 simultaneously in a uniform manner by all Member
was held in Brussels on 7 May 1973 .                              States .
The period of one month within which, under the                   2. As the Commission has pointed out on many oc­
 Council Decision of 21 March 1962, the Commission                casions, Community rules governing access to the
 must express an Opinion was, in accordance with                  transport market and price formation constitute the
Article 2 (4) of that Decision, extended until                    essential element of the common organization of
 25 May 1973 .                                                    transport, which must make it possible to regulate
                                                                  competition, to promote market integration and to
The Commission did not consider it necessary to                   achieve freedom to provide services and the right of
consult the other Member States in accordance with                establishment in the field of transport.
 Article   2    (3 )   of   the    Council    Decision    of
 21 March 1962 .                                                  In accordance with the ideas expressed by the Com­
                                                                  mission, the Council at its meeting on 22 June 1965
Under Article 2 of the Council Decision of 21 March               agreed to the introduction of a system based on a
 1962 the Commission, on the basis of the general                 common organization of the market in transport and
 guidelines drawn up by the Community institutions                on alignment of operating conditions in the national
 as regards access to the road transport market, hereby           markets. More especially, access to the market and
 formulates the following recommendation :                        price formation are included as essential elements of
                                                                  this system .
                                I                                 Moreover, in its Resolution of 20 October 1966 the
                                                                  Council stressed, in particular, the importance of
  1 . The Commission notes that the proposed laws                 adopting provisions concerning the control of capa­
 are intended, firstly, to make the right to engage in            city and the right to engage in the occupation of
                                                                  carrier, and requested the Commission to present
                                                                  corresponding proposals to it as soon as possible in
 (») OJ No 23 , 3. 4. 1962, p. 720/62.                            respect of national and international transport.
 ---pagebreak--- No L 197/50                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                  17. 7. 73
A proposal (*) to this effect was made by the Com­                — As regards own account transport operations, the
mission as early as 1967, and was approved by the                      proposed definition differs in various respects
European Parliament and the Economic and Social                        from the delimitation employed at Community
Committee .                                                            level , which appears in Article 9 of Council Regu­
                             I
                                                                       lation No 11 (2) of 27 June 1960. Moreover, the
                                                                       draft law does not contain any provisions con­
Regarding the various Chapters of the draft law, the                   cerning the equivalence of own account transport
Commission hereby formulates the follwing obser­                       operations and transport by means of hired ve­
vations :                                                              hicles. The Commission considers that, in view
                                                                       of the principle that the introduction of different
3 . As regards the objectives pursued , Article 1 estab­               provisions in Member States should be avoided , it
lishes as a principle the search for a balance between                 would be desirable for the Danish Government to
supply and demand, for healthy competition between                     include in its definition the abovementioned
carriers and for a rational distribution of transport                  delimitation . Furthermore, given the economic
services between the various forms of transport. The                   advantage represented in certain cases by the hire
Commission points out that the concept of the com­                     of vehicles, it would be desirable for the draft
mon transport policy is based on the idea that the                     law to include the provisions laid down in
optimum distribution of traffic as between forms of                    Article 32 (2 ) of the abovementioned Commission
transport and transport undertakings must be en­                       proposal of 15 June 1967 ;
sured by free competition . To seek to achieve such
a distribution by means of active coordinating                    — As regards regular services, the definition also
measures, in the form of rules and Regulations or                      differs from that laid down by the Commission in
not, is therefore out of the question .                                Article 1 of its proposal of 15 June 1967 referred
                                                                       to above and , moreover, does not provide for the
Such a concept, however, does not preclude all inter­                  adoption of operating rules approved by the
vention by the authorities in the market. On the                       authorities, which are necessary to ensure proper
contrary , it implies the need for certain intervention                functioning and the safeguard of users ' interests .
 measures with a threefold aim :
— To ensure the functioning of the market by                      5 . In Chapter 3 concerning carriage for hire or re­
     placing the forms of transport and transport                 ward, the criteria adopted by the Danish Government
    undertakings on an equal footing, through                     for fixing the number of authorizations are likely to
    harmonization of the conditions of competition                introduce a degree of coordination and to give the
    and the appropriate charging of infrastructure                authorizations a commercial value. In this connection ,
     costs ;                                                      the Commission points out that, in its various pro­
— To prevent or remedy the abuses to which com­                   posals relating to access to the transport market, it
    petition can give rise, namely the abuse of do­               has argued that authorizations should be non-trans­
     minant positions and ruinous competition , by the            ferable. If this were so, they could have no commer­
                                                                  cial value .
     introduction of permanent machinery for the
     supervision and control of capacity and, if need
     be, by means of temporary selective measures ;               The Council accepted this principle by declaring on
                                                                  28 February 1972 , when it adopted Regulation (EEC)
— To contribute to attaining objectives of regional               No 517/72 (*) on the introduction of common rules
     and social policy, in so far as the interplay of             for regular and special regular services by coach and
     market forces alone would not produce that                   bus between Member States, that 'the approval
     result .
                                                                  given by the competent authorities to the transfer of
4. The Commission notes that in Chapter 2 con­                    authorizations must guarantee that the authorizations
                                                                  issued will not be the subject of any trade'. Further­
cerning definitions :
                                                                  more, as regards the conditions governing the right to
— As regards carriage for hire or reward, a positive              engage in the occupation of road haulage contractor,
     definition leads inevitably to conflicting interpret­        the Commission notes that they only approximately
    ations, particularly regarding the concept of re­             correspond to the conditions contemplated at Com­
      muneration adopted, whereas a negative definition           munity level and that, moreover, progress to date is
     in relation to that of own account operations                such that a Directive should shortly be adopted con­
     would have favoured harmonization while avoid­               cerning the conditions governing the right to engage
     ing such interpretations ;                                    in the occupation of road haulage contractor.
(*) Proposal for a Council Regulation on the introduction
    of common rules governing the right to engage in the          (2) Regulation No 11 concerning the abolition of discrimi­
    occupation of road haulage contractor in the field of             nation in transport rates and conditions, in implemen­
    national and international transport, and on rules                tation of Article 79 (3) of the Treaty establishing the
    governing capacity in the field of the national transport         EEC ( OJ No 52, 16. 8 . 1960, p. 1121 /60).
    of goods by road (OJ No 254, 20. 10. 1967, p. 3 ).            (3) OJ No L 67 , 20 . 3 . 1972 , p . 19 .
 ---pagebreak---  17 . 7. 73                         Official Journal of the European Communities                         No L 197/51
 In addition , the adoption of different subjective con­       proposals in line with the observations formulated in
ditions     in Member    States  would    constitute  an       Section II above, with a view to bringing them into
 obstacle to the early attainment of the right of estab­       harmony with the general lines of the common trans­
lishment.                                                      port policy.
                            Ill
                                                                                         IV
6. Given the foregoing, the Commission considers
that the introduction of the proposed Danish                   7 . The Commission shall inform the other Member
measures should be integrated at Community level               States of the Recommendation .
by the adoption of corresponding measures in line
with the principles laid down by the Council in its
Agreement of 22 June 1965 and in accordance with               Done at Brussels, 23 May 1973 .
its Resolution of 20 October 1966 .                                                          For the Commission
                                                                                                The President
At all events, the Commission hereby recommends
the Danish Government to amend the contemplated                                            Francois-Xavier ORTOLI