CELEX: 31976D0209
Language: en
Date: 1975-12-22 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 22 December 1975 authorizing 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

No L 41 / 14                       Official Journal of the European Communities                             17. 2. 76
                                             COMMISSION DECISION
                                                of 22 December 1975
             authorizing Ireland to take protective measures in respect of Council Regulation
             (EEC) No 543/69 of 25 March 1969 on the harmonization of certain social legisla­
                                           tion relating to road transport
                                          (Only the English text is authentic)
                                                     (76/209/EEC)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                present bad economic situation the burden of such
COMMUNITIES,                                                  additional costs on the road transport industry in
                                                              Ireland is now relatively larger than was the case in
Having regard to the Act concerning the conditions of         the six original Member States when Regulation (EEC)
accession and the adjustments to the Treaties, and in         No 543/69 entered into force under more favourable
particular Article 135 thereof,                               conditions ;
Whereas, by virtue of Article 133 of the Act of Acces­        Whereas, under the present economic conditions,
sion and paragraph 1 of Table III of Annex VII to the         reduction in driving time attendant on Regulation
Act, the application of Council Regulation (EEC) No           (EEC) No 543/69 would not lead to an increase in the
543/69 of 25 March 1969 on the harmonization of               number of drivers and vehicles because of reduced
certain social legislation relating to national transport     productivity, lower capital utilization and a further
operations in the new Member States is postponed              reduction in the volume of traffic and the curtailment
until 1 January 1976 ;                                        of services ;
Whereas the Government of Ireland has requested by            Whereas the transport industry in Ireland is already
letter dated 18 December 1975 authorization under             characterized by high and increasing unemployment
Article 135 of the Act of Accession for the taking of         — 60 % rise in the case of drivers over the past year ;
protective measures in the road transport sector, and         whereas this situation will be aggravated by the above­
in particular for the suspension until 31 December             mentioned curtailment in services ;
1977 of the application of Regulation (EEC) No
543/69 to national traffic ;                                  Whereas it appears unlikely that employees in the
                                                               industry would be willing to accept a reduction in
Whereas the road transport industry in Ireland is              earnings proportionate to the enforced reduction in
made up largely of very small enterprises, many of            driving times consequent on application of Regulation
them owner-drivers ;                                          (EEC) No 543/69 ;
Whereas, according to information supplied by the              Whereas further time is required to allow employers
Government of Ireland, the freight industry is                 and employees to adjust their terms and conditions of
suffering, under the effects of the current recession,         employment to the situation which application of the
severe economic difficulties ;                                 Regulation would bring about ;
Whereas geographical conditions in Ireland are such            Whereas in the present situation of reduced traffic
that the average length of journeys between major              particular problems of income reduction will be faced
centres of population coupled with the standards of            by owner-drivers ;
Irish roads means that typical return journeys on
which the Irish industry is based, can only be effected        Whereas a further period of time is to be put at the
with daily driving times somewhat in excess of those           disposal of the Irish Government in order to enable
set out in Regulation (EEC) No 543/69 ; whereas enfor­         them by education and persuasion of both sides of the
cement of the new permitted hours of driving and               industry to achieve gradual acceptance of the
distances would disrupt well established schedules and         measures ;
working rosters and would lead to serious opposition
from employees on account of additional and                    Whereas application of the Regulation would have
unwanted absences from home or base ;                          particularly serious consequences in less developed
                                                               parts of the country, where even now services are very
Whereas the application of Regulation (EEC) No                 limited and constitute to a certain degree alreadyv a
543/69 would add to the serious and persistent diffi­          social service ;
culties in the road transport industry ; whereas Ireland
estimates that the application of the Regulation will          Whereas Regulation (EEC) No 1463/70 is due to be
cause a rise in costs of up to 30 % ; whereas in the           applied only to newly registered vehicles from 1
 ---pagebreak--- 17. 2. 76                          Official Journal of the European Communities                          No L 41 / 15
January 1976 ; whereas this will represent only a            national legislation, but may include measures which
minor additional cost to the industry ; whereas the          progressively implement the rules contained in Regu­
gradual introduction in the manner planned repre­            lation (EEC) No 543/69.
sents an important step in education as to the benefits
of the tachograph and in achieving user acceptability ;
                                                                                      Article 2
whereas the tachograph introduced by Regulation
(EEC) No 1463/70 is an important advance in
check-up and control on social matters in road trans­        1 . Ireland shall notify the Commission immedi­
port ;
                                                             ately of the measures taken in application of
                                                             Article 1 .
Whereas these difficulties faced by the Irish road trans­
port industry are of such a nature as to render insuffi­     2.    Ireland shall inform the Commission of the deve­
cient the period between accession and application of        lopment of the situation in the sector concerned and
Regulation (EEC) No 543/69 provided for in the Act           shall forward to the Commission before 1 April 1976
of Accession ; whereas a further period of six months        a statement of the measures which are being taken to
will give Ireland the opportunity to continue to rectify     implement Regulation (EEC) No 543/69.
the situation and adjust the sector concerned to the
economy of the common market ; whereas a deroga­                                      Article 3
tion from Articles 6 to 12, 14 and 15 is sufficient to
achieve the objectives of Article 135 of the Act of          1.    The Commission shall review this Decision not
Accession ;
                                                             later than 30 April 1976.
Whereas an authorization for a temporary derogation
should not lead to any lowering of the existing social       2. Without prejudice to the review provided for in
conditions enjoyed by road transport workers ;               the preceding paragraph, the Commission may
                                                             modify or revoke the present Decision if it determines
Whereas Ireland should report on the development of          that the conditions which have led to its adoption
the situation in the sector concerned in order to            have changed or that its effects prove to be more
enable the Commission to review its Decision,                extensive than its purpose requires.
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION :                                                           Article 4
                         Article 1                           This Decision is addressed to Ireland.
1.     Ireland is authorized to take national measures
with respect to national transport operations for a
                                                             Done at Brussels, 22 December 1975.
period until 30 June 1976 derogating from Articles 6
to 12, 14 and 15 of Council Regulation (EEC) No
543/ 69 of 25 March 1969 on the harmonization of                                        For the Commission
certain social legislation relating to road transport.
                                                                                            The President
2.     These national measures shall be at least as
favourable to transport workers as the existing                                        Francois-Xavier ORTOLI