CELEX: 51997PC0073
Language: en
Date: 1997-02-26
Title: Amended proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) amending Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 on common rules for the international carriage of passengers by coach and bus

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                     Brussels, 26.02.1997
                                     COM(97) 73 final
                                     96/0125 (SYN)
                  Amended proposal for a
             COUNCIL REGULATION (EC)
           amending Regulation (EEC) No 684/92
        on common rules for the international carriage
                of passengers by coach and bus
(presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 189 a (2)
                     of the EC-Treaty)
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                             EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
At its plenary session of 27 and 28 November 1996, the European Parliament approved,
subject to a number of amendments, the proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) amending
Council Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 on common rules for the international carriage of
passengers by coach and bus.!
The Commission has accepted the amendments concerning:
- Recital la (new) on the general principle of the liberalization and phased harmonization
   of the conditions of competition, subject to "Union" being replaced by "Community";
- Recital 7 where mention is made of simplifying administrative procedures for the
   issuing of the Community licence;
- Recital 9a (new) and Article 1(1) on excluding urban and suburban services from the
   scope of the Regulation on international carriage.       The exclusion of international
   regional services cannot be accepted, since this would run counter to the objectives
   achieved by the creation of the internal market and would be seen as a regression
    compared with the previous situation established by Regulation 684/92;
 1
     OJ No C 203, 13.07.96.
 ---pagebreak--- - Récita! 9b (nev.) concerning the accessibility of transport systems,
- Article 1(5) and (7) concerning, respectively, the definition of occasional services and
  own-account transport operations;
- Article 3(1) which supplements the definition of the Community licence;
- Article 6(5) on using additional vehicles;
The Commission thus amends its proposal as follows:
 ---pagebreak---                                 Amended proposal for a
                Council Regulation amending Regulation (EEC) No 684/92
                      on common rules for the international carriage
                             of passengers by coach and bus
The Gommission proposal in document COM(96) 190 final - SYN 96/01252 is amended
as follows:
        Initial Commission proposal                         Amended proposal
                                     Recital la (new)
                                               "Whereas the European Community's
                                               internal market is an area for the free
                                               movement of goods, persons, services and
                                               capital: whereas it is necessary to liberalize
                                               the international carriage of passengers bv
                                               coach and bus, in tandem with the phased
                                               harmonization of the socio-economic, fiscal
                                               and technical conditions governing road
                                               passenger transport within the Member
                                               States and alongside measures to ensure
                                               non-discriminatory        conditions       for
                                               operators;"
2
     OJ No C 203, 13.07.96.
 ---pagebreak---        Initial Commission proposal                         Amended proposal
                                         Recital 7
"Whereas, in order to facilitate the           "Whereas, in order to facilitate the
inspection of transport operations, the       inspection of transport operations, the
international carriage of passengers by road  international carriage of passengers by road
for hire or reward should be subject to a     for hire or reward should be subject to a
Community licence conforming to a             Community licence conforming to a
harmonized model;"                            harmonized model and issued by means of
                                              administrative procedures which are
                                              straightforward and do not constitute a
                                              burden for transport undertakings:"
       Initial Commission proposal                         Amended proposal
                                     Recital 9a (new)
                                              "Whereas urban carriage in frontier areas
                                              should, for the present, be excluded from
                                              the scope of this Regulation, in view of its
                                              character as a service in the general
                                              interest:"
       Initial Commission proposal                        Amended proposal
                                     Recital 9b (new)
                                              "Whereas the accessibility of transport
                                              systems and in particular the accessibility of
                                              intercity bus and coach services, especially
                                              on routes across Europe, is one of the
                                              objectives of the common transport policy:"
 ---pagebreak---         Initial Commission proposal                         Amended proposal
                                         Article 1(1)
Article 2 of Regulation 684/92 is amended Article 2 of Regulation 684/92 is amended
as follows:                                     as follows:
A new subparagraph is added to point 1.1:       A new subparagraph is added to point 1.1:
        "Regular services operated within a             "Regular services operated as urban
        conurbation situated in two or more             and suburban transport services
        Member States shall be designated               between      two        or     more
        "urban carriage in frontier areas"."            Member States shall be designated
                                                        "urban carriage in frontier areas".
                                                        These services shall be excluded
                                                        from the scope of this Regulation"
 ---pagebreak---         Initial Commission proposal                        Amended proposal
                                       Article 1(5)
Article 2 of Regulation 684/92 is amended Article 2 of Regulation 684/92 is amended
as follows:                                   as follows:
"Point 3 1 is replaced by the following:      "Point 3.1 is replaced by the following:
Occasional services are services meeting      Occasional services are services which do
neither the definition of a regular service   not meet the definition of a regular service^
nor the definition of a special regular       including special regular services, and which
service, and which are characterized above    are characterized above all by the fact that
all by the fact that they carry groups of     they carry groups of passengers assembled
passengers previously assembled, or that      at the initiative of the customer or of the
they are organized at the request of the      carrier himself
customer, or comprise accommodation or
other non-ancillary tourist services in the   The organization of parallel or temporary
course of the journey or at the place of      services comparable to existing regular
destination, or are organized on the          services and serving the same public as the
occasion of special events, or comprise an    latter shall be subject to authorization in
empty journey in the course of the outward    accordance with the procedure laid down in
or return journey or are organized for the    Section II of this Regulation."
purpose of carrying out tours.
The organization of parallel or temporary
services comparable to existing regular
services and serving the same public as the
latter shall be subject to authorization in
accordance with the procedure laid down in
 Section II of this Regulation."
 ---pagebreak---           Initia! Commission proposal                           Amended proposal
                                           Article 1(7)
  Article 2 of Regulation 684/92 is amended       Article 2 of Regulation 684/92 is amended
  as follows:                                     as follows:
  "Point 4 is replaced by the following:          "Point 4 is replaced by the following:
 Own-account transport operations are those       Own-account transport operations are
 carried out for non-commercial purposes,         services carried out for non-profit-making
 notably by an undertaking for its own            and non-commercial purposes by a natural
 employees or by a non-profit-making body         or legal person, provided that:
 for the transport of its members in
                                                  -   the transport activity is only an ancillary
 connection with its social objective
                                                      activity for the natural or legal person.
 provided that:
 -   the transport activity is only an ancillary - the vehicles used are the property of that
     activity for the undertaking or body,           natural or legal person or have been
                                                     obtained on deferred terms by them or
- the vehicles used are the property of that         have been the subject of a long-term
    undertaking or body or have been                 leasing contract and are driven by a
    obtained on deferred terms by them or            member of the staff of the natural or
    have been the subject of a long-term             legal person or bv the natural person
    leasing contract and are driven by a             himself."
    member of the staff of the undertaking or
    body."
         Initial Commission proposal                           Amended proposal
                                         Article 3(1)
Regulation 684/92 is supplemented by a Regulation 684/92 is supplemented by a
new Article 3a:                                  new Article 3a:
"1. Any carrier meeting the criteria laid        "1. With a view to the international
down in Article 3(1) must hold a                 carriage of passengers by coach or bus, any
Community licence issued by the competent        carrier meeting the criteria laid down in
authorities of the State of establishment in     Article 3(1) must hold a Community licence
accordance with the model in the Annex to        issued by the competent authorities of the
this Regulation."                                State of establishment in accordance with
                                                 the model in the Annex to this Regulation."
 ---pagebreak---          Initial Commission proposal                          Amended proposai
                                         Article 6(5)
 Article 5 of Regulation 684/92 is amended Article 5 of Regulation 684/92 is amended
 as follows:                                    as follows.
 "6. In the case of additional vehicles being    "6. The operator of the regular services
 used for existing regular services, a copy of  may use additional vehicles to cope with
 the corresponding contract or document         temporary or exceptional situations. In this
between the operator of the regular service     case, the carrier must ensure that the
and the carrier providing the additional        following documents are carried on the
vehicles and a copy of the authorization of     vehicle:
the regular service must be carried on the
                                                - a copy of the authorization of the regular
vehicle.
                                                    service,
A carrier providing additional vehicles must - a copy of the contract concluded
hold the Community licence provided for in
                                                    between the operator of the regular
Article 3(a). A true copy of the Community
                                                    service and the undertaking providing
licence must be carried on the additional
                                                    the additional vehicles or an equivalent
vehicle."
                                                   document,
                                               - a true copy of the Community licence
                                                   issued to the operator of the regular
                                                   service. "
The remainder of the text is unchanged.
Done at Brussels,                                              For the Council
 ---pagebreak---  ---pagebreak---                                                                    ISSN 0254-.-, 75
                                                             COM(97) 73 final
                                             DOCUMENTS
EN                                                                        07 06
                                    Catalogue number : CB-CO-97-064-EN-C
                                                              ISBN 92-78-16203-5
OlVicc lor OlVicial Publications of Ihc European Communities
L-2985 Luxembourg
                                                  \o