CELEX: 31976D0208
Language: en
Date: 1975-12-22 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 22 December 1975 authorizing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to take protective measures in respect of Council Regulation (EEC) No 543/69 of 25 March 1969 on the harmonization of certain social legislation relating to road transport

17. 2. 76                          Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 41 / 11
                                                           II
                                      (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                               COMMISSION
                                             COMMISSION DECISION
                                                of 22 December 1975
              authorizing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to take
              protective measures in respect of Council Regulation (EEC) No 543/69 of 25
              March 1969 on the harmonization of certain social legislation relating to road
                                                       transport
                                          (Only the English text is authentic)
                                                     (76/208/EEC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                Whereas, according to information supplied by the
COMMUNITIES,                                                  United Kingdom Government, the freight industry is
                                                              suffering, under the effects of the current recession,
                                                              severe economic difficulties with 60 % of the industry
Having regard to the Act concerning the conditions of         making less than a basic return of 15% on capital ;
accession and the adjustments to the Treaties, and in
particular Article 135 thereof,
                                                              Whereas the percentage of individual bankruptcies
                                                              has almost doubled of late ; whereas new goods
Whereas, by virtue of Article 133 of the Act of Acces­
                                                              vehicle registrations have declined to 29 802 between
sion and paragraph 1 of Table III of Annex VII to the         April and September 1975 from 37 901 in the same
Act, the application of Council Regulation (EEC) No
543/69 of 25 March 1969 on the harmonization of
                                                              period in 1973 ; whereas a major undertaking repre­
                                                              senting 10 % of the industry reports a decline in busi­
certain social legislation relating to national transport     ness handled of 1 5 % compared with 1 974 ; whereas
operations in the new Member States is postponed
                                                              reduction in driving time attendant on the Regulation
until 1 January 1976 ;
                                                              would require increases in the number of drivers and
                                                              vehicles and result in reduced productivity and lower
                                                              capital utilization ; whereas additional costs would be
Whereas the Government of the United Kingdom of
                                                              imposed by the need to renegotiate local wages agree­
Great Britain and Northern Ireland has requested by
letter dated 15 December 1975 authorization under             ments and working schedules ;
Article 135 of the Act of Accession for the taking of
protective measures in the road transport sector, and
in particular for the suspension until 31 December            Whereas, according to information supplied by the
1977 of the application of Regulation (EEC) No                United Kingdom, the road passenger transport sector
543/69 (except Article 5) to national traffic ;               is also in a weak economic state ; whereas the publicly
                                                              owned part is not making a profit overall ; whereas the
                                                              planned Government subsidy for factors other than
Whereas the road transport industry in the United             the effects of the application of the Regulation is
Kingdom is made up largely of very small enterprises          £ 1 57 000 000 in the next financial year ; whereas the
—?^70 000 out of 13Q000 operators of goods vehicles           elasticity of demand as revealed by a recent study
over 3-5 tons gross permitted weight having only one          shows that the industry's ability to recover increased
vehicle and only 13 % having more than 5 vehicles ;           costs by fare increases is low ; whereas the United
 ---pagebreak--- No L 41 / 12                       Official Journal of the European Communities                              17. 2. 76
Kingdom states that there is little scope for increasing     Whereas such authorization for a derogation should
efficiency and that there is a nationwide shortage of        not lead to any lowering of the existing social condi­
bus drivers ; whereas, the application of the Regula­        tions enjoyed by road transport workers ;
tion would aggravate that situation ;
                                                             Whereas the United Kingdom should report on the
Whereas the application of Regulation (EEC) No
                                                             development of the situation in the sector concerned
                                                             in order to enable the Commission to review its deci­
543/69 would add to the serious and persistent diffi­        sion,
culties in the road transport industry ; whereas the
United Kingdom estimates alll the additional costs of
the Regulation to be at least £ 100 000 000 per annum
for the freight sector alone ; whereas in the present
bad economic situation the burden of such additional
                                                              HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :
cost on the road transport industry in the United
Kingdom is now relatively larger than was the case in
the six original Member States when Regulation (EEC)
No 543/69 entered into force under more favourable                                     A rticle 1
conditions ;
                                                              1.    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Whereas it appears unlikely that employees in the             Northern    Ireland   is  authorized   to take  national
industry would be willing to accept a reduction in            measures with respect to national transport operations
earnings proportionate to the enforced reduction in           for a period until 30 June 1976 derogating from arti­
driving times consequent on application of the Regula­        cles 6 to 12, 14 and 15 of Council Regulation (EEC)
tion ; whereas a likely result of that would be an            No 543/69 of 25 March 1969 on the harmonization of
increase in rates of pay in excess of that permitted          certain social legislation relating to road transport.
under the United Kingdom's wages policy ; whereas, a
breach of that policy involving 750 000 drivers could         2.    These national     measures shall be at least as
have widespread influence on the willingness of               favourable to transport workers as the existing
others to adhere to that policy ; whereas, this could         national legislation, but may include measures which
add further to the difficulties of the industry ;             progressively implement the rules contained in Regu­
                                                              lation (EEC) No 543/69.
Whereas application of the Regulation would be parti­
 cularly serious in remote, rural areas where the
 distances between centres of industry and population                                  Article 2
 are much greater than in the rest of the United
 Kingdom, and where the roads are generally inferior
 and more liable to be adversely affected by severe           1 . The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
 winter weather conditions ;                                  Northern Ireland shall notify the Commission imme­
                                                              diately of the measures taken in application of
                                                              Article 1 .
 Whereas at present the permitted daily driving time
 in Northern Ireland is one hour longer than in Great         2.    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and
 Britain and the reduction consequent on application          Northern Ireland shall inform the Commission of the
 of the Regulation would be greater in that province          development of the situation in the sector concerned
 than in the rest of the United Kingdom ; whereas the         and shall forward to the Commission before 1 April
 already serious situation in Northern Ireland would be        1976 a statement of the measures which are being
 aggravated thereby ;                                         taken to implement Regulation (EEC) No 543/69 .
 Whereas these difficulties faced by the United
 Kingdom road transport industry are of such a nature                                  Article 3
 as to render insufficient the period between accession
 and application of the Regulation provided for in the         1.   The Commission shall review this Decision not
 Act of Accession ; whereas a period of six months will
                                                              later than 30 April 1976.
 give the United Kingdom the opportunity to continue
 to rectify the situation and adjust the sector concerned
 to the economy of the common market ; whereas a              2. Without prejudice to the review provided for in
 derogation from Articles 6 to 12, 14 and 15 is suffi­        the preceding paragraph, the Commission may
 cient to achieve the objectives of Article 135 of the         modify or revoke the present Decision if it determines
 Treaty of Accession ;                                         that the conditions which have led to its adoption
 ---pagebreak--- 17 . 2. 76                       Official Journal of the European Communities                      No L 41 / 13
have changed or that its effects prove to be more          Done at Brussels, 22 December 1975 .
extensive than its purpose requires.
                                                                                  For the Commission
                      Article 4
                                                                                      The President
This Decision is addressed to the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland.                                              François-Xavier ORTOLI