CELEX: 52000PC0751
Language: en
Date: 2000-11-22
Title: Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 on access to the market in the carriage of goods by road within the Community to and from the territory of a Member State or passing across the territory of one or more Member States as regards a uniform Driver Attestation (COM(2000) 751 final — 2000/0297(COD)) (Text with EEA relevance)

27.3.2001              EN                       Official Journal of the European Communities                                       C 96 E/207
                Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council
                Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 on access to the market in the carriage of goods by road within
                the Community to and from the territory of a Member State or passing across the territory of one
                                   or more Member States as regards a uniform Driver Attestation
                                                               (2001/C 96 E/10)
                                                           (Text with EEA relevance)
                                                COM(2000) 751 final  2000/0297(COD)
                                            (Submitted by the Commission on 23 November 2000)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE                               (5) The impossibility to check the employment status of
EUROPEAN UNION,                                                                  drivers outside the Member State of establishment has
                                                                                 led to a market situation where drivers are engaged
                                                                                 irregularly and solely for international carriage outside
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                            the haulier’s Member State of establishment with an
Community, and in particular Article 71 thereof,                                 intent to breach the national legislation of the Member
                                                                                 State of establishment having issued the haulier’s
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                               Community authorization.
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee,                                                                   (6) Where such irregularly used drivers are engaged they are
                                                                                 often working under detrimental conditions and salaries
                                                                                 leading to serious road safety concerns.
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty,                                                           (7) Such a systematic breach of national legislation has led to
                                                                                 serious distortion of competition between hauliers
                                                                                 engaged in such practices and those that are still using
Whereas:                                                                         only drivers lawfully employed.
  (1) Pursuant to Council Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 of 26
      March 1992 on access to the market in the carriage of                  (8) The authorised bodies of Member States find it impossible
      goods by road within the Community to and from the                         to control the working conditions of those irregularly
      territory of a Member State or passing across the territory                used drivers.
      of one or more Member States (1), internal Community
      transport operations are liberated from quantitative
      restrictions amongst other things by the issue of a
      Community authorization as a uniform document.                         (9) Only a uniform document will give Member States the
                                                                                 possibility to ascertain that drivers are lawfully engaged or
  (2) The absence of a similar uniform document certifying the                   put at the disposal of the haulier responsible for the
      entitlement of drivers to drive the vehicles engaged in                    transport operation.
      such international carriage subject to Community auth-
      orization has led to serious control difficulties for
      enforcement bodies.
                                                                           (10) This regulation leaves the legislation and provisions of
                                                                                 Member States and the Community governing
  (3) National enforcement bodies in Member States find it (in                   movement, residence and access to an activity as an
      the absence of a uniform Driver attestation) impossible to                 employed person unaffected.
      ascertain whether a driver of a vehicle engaged in inter-
      national carriage subject to Community authorization,
      which has been issued in another Member State, is auth-
      orised to do so according to the national legislation of the         (11) In accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and
      latter Member State.                                                       proportionality as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty, the
                                                                                 objectives of the proposed regulation, namely to introduce
                                                                                 a single uniform Driver Attestation, cannot be sufficiently
  (4) Given these control difficulties the employment status of                  achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by
      drivers is normally only checked in the Member States                      reason of scale and effects of the regulation, be better
      where the employing haulier is established.                                achieved by the Community. This regulation confines
                                                                                 itself to the minimum required in order to achieve
(1) OJ L 95, 9.4.1992, p. 1; Regulation amended by the Act of                    those objectives and does not go beyond what is
    Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden.                                    necessary for that purpose.
 ---pagebreak--- C 96 E/208             EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                       27.3.2001
(12) Member States need time to have the new driver attes-                   For carriage falling within the scope of this Regulation it
      tation printed and distributed and this Regulation shall               shall also replace both the Community authorizations and
      therefore apply only after sufficient time has been given              the bilateral authorizations exchanged between Member
      to Member States to adopt the measures necessary for its               States which are necessary until this Regulation comes
      implementation.                                                        into force.
(13) It should be expressly confirmed that Member States have                2.     The Driver attestation referred to in Article 3 shall
      the possibility to require that a vehicle for which they               certify that the driver of a vehicle engaged in international
      issue a certified copy of the Community authorisation is               carriage under the cover of a Community authorization is
      registered in their territory.                                         legally entitled, in accordance with the relevant provisions
                                                                             and rules of the Member State of establishment, to drive
                                                                             that vehicle in that Member State.
(14) Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 should be amended
      accordingly,
                                                                          4. Article 5 is amended as follows:
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
                                                                             (a) The following paragraph 5 is added:
                              Article 1
                                                                                 5.    The Community authorization shall be issued for
Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 is amended as follows:                                a renewable period of five years.
1. in Article 2 the following indent is added:                            5. Article 6 is replaced by the following:
    driver shall mean the person who drives a vehicle, or                Article 6
          who is carried in that vehicle in order to be available
          for driving if necessary;                                         1.     The Driver attestation referred to in Article 3 shall be
                                                                             issued by the competent authorities of the Member State of
                                                                             establishment of the haulage undertaking.
2. Article 3 is amended as follows:
                                                                             2.     The Member States shall issue the holder of the
   (a) Paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:                             Community authorization, on request, with a Driver attes-
                                                                             tation for each driver lawfully employed or lawfully put at
        1. International carriage shall be carried out subject              the disposal of the holder of the Community authorization
        to Community authorization in conjunction with a                     in accordance with the relevant national provisions and
        Driver attestation unless the driver and the holder of               rules of that Member State. Each Driver attestation
        the Community authorization are identical.                          certifies that the driver named therein is entitled in the
                                                                             issuing Member State to drive a vehicle on behalf of the
                                                                             holder of the Community authorization to whom the Driver
   (b) The following paragraph 3 is added:                                   attestation is issued.
        3.    Driver attestations shall be issued by a Member               3.     The Driver attestation shall correspond to the model
        State, in accordance with Article 6, to any haulier who:             set out in Annex III, which also lays down the conditions
                                                                             governing its use. Member States shall take all necessary
                                                                             steps to avoid any risk of forgery of Driver attestations.
         is the holder of a Community authorization
                                                                             4.     The Driver attestation shall belong to the haulier who
         in that Member State lawfully employs drivers or                   puts it at the disposal of the driver described therein when
            uses drivers lawfully put at his disposal in                     this driver drives a vehicle engaged in international carriage
            accordance with the relevant legislation and                     using a Community authorization issued to that haulier. A
            provisions of that Member State.                                certified copy of the Driver attestation shall be kept at the
                                                                             premises of the haulier. The Driver attestation must be
3. Article 4 is replaced by the following:                                   produced whenever required by an authorized inspecting
                                                                             officer.
   Article 4
                                                                             5.     The Driver attestation shall be issued for a period to
                                                                             be determined by the issuing Member State, with a
   1.      The Community authorization referred to in Article 3              maximum validity of five years. The Driver attestation
   shall replace the document issued by the competent auth-                  shall only be valid as long as the conditions under which
   orities of the Member State of establishment, where such a                it was issued are satisfied. Member States shall take appro-
   document exists, certifying that the haulier has been granted             priate measures to ensure that these attestations are
   access to the market in the international carriage of goods               returned immediately by the haulier to the issuing auth-
   by road.                                                                  orities if these conditions are no longer met.
 ---pagebreak--- 27.3.2001             EN                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                    C 96 E/209
6. Article 7 is replaced by the following:                                   Member State of establishment of the haulier who has
                                                                             committed such infringements shall take appropriate
   Article 7                                                                sanctions, for instance:
   1.     Whenever an application for a Community auth-                       suspend the issue of Driver attestations,
   orization is lodged, not more than five years after issue
   and subsequently at least every five years, the competent                  withdraw Driver attestations,
   authorities of the Member State of establishment shall
   verify whether the haulier satisfies or still satisfies the                make the issue of Driver attestations subject to
   conditions laid down in Article 3(2).                                         additional conditions in order to prevent any misuse,
   2. The competent authorities of the Member State of                        temporarily or partially suspend the certified true copies
   establishment shall verify regularly whether the conditions                   of the Community authorization.
   referred to in Article 3(3) under which a Driver attestation
   has been issued are still satisfied.                                     These sanctions shall be determined having regard to the
                                                                             seriousness of the infringement committed by the holder of
7. Article 8 is replaced by the following:                                   the Community authorization.
   Article 8                                                            8. Article 9 is replaced by the following:
   1.     If the conditions laid down in Article 3(2), respectively          Article 9
   referred to in Article 3(3) are not satisfied, the competent
   authorities of the Member State of establishment shall reject             1.     The Member States shall guarantee that the applicant
   an application for the issue or renewal of a Community                    or the holder of a Community authorization is able to
   authorization, respectively a Driver attestation, by means                appeal against any decision by the competent authorities
   of a reasoned decision.                                                   of the Member State of establishment to refuse or
                                                                             withdraw an authorization.
   2. The competent authorities shall withdraw a
   Community authorization, respectively a Driver attestation                2.     The Member States shall guarantee that the holder of a
   where the holder:                                                         Community authorization is able to appeal against any
                                                                             decision by the competent authorities of the Member
    no longer satisfies the conditions laid down in Article                 State of establishment to refuse or withdraw a Driver attes-
       3(2), respectively referred to in Article 3(3),                       tation or to make the issue of Driver attestations subject to
                                                                             additional conditions.
    has supplied incorrect information in relation to the
       data required for the issue of a Community auth-                  9. The text appearing in Annex to this Regulation shall be
       orization, respectively a Driver attestation.                         added as Annex III.
   3. In the event of serious infringements or repeated                                               Article 2
   minor infringements of carriage regulations, the
   competent authorities of the Member State of establishment            The Member States shall communicate to the Commission the
   of the haulier who has committed such infringements may               measures they take to implement this Regulation.
   inter alia temporarily or partially suspend the certified true
   copies of the Community authorization and may suspend                                              Article 3
   Driver attestations. These sanctions shall be determined
   having regard to the seriousness of the infringement                  This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day
   committed by the holder of the Community authorization                following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
   and having regard to the total number of certified copies             European Communities.
   that he holds in respect of international traffic.
                                                                         It shall apply from [one year] after its entry into force.
   4. In the event of serious infringements or repeated
   minor infringements regarding any misuse whatsoever of                This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly
   Driver attestations, the competent authorities of the                 applicable in all Member States.
 ---pagebreak--- C 96 E/210                EN                                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                                                                                                 27.3.2001
                                                                                                                  ANNEX
                                                                                                              ANNEX III
                                                                                              EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
                                                                                                                       (a)
                                                                                                 (Colour Pink  DIN A4)
                                                                                              (First page of the attestation)
                                          (Text in (one of) the official language(s) of the Member State issuing the attestation)
                                     State issuing the attestation
                                                                                                                                            Name of the competent authority or body
                                           Distinguishing sign (1)
                                                                                         DRIVER ATTESTATION No . . .
                                                      for the international carriage of goods by road for hire or reward
           This attestation certifies that the following driver (2): .......................................................................................................................
           ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
           is entitled in the Member State issuing the attestation to drive for (3) ..........................................................................................
           ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
           a vehicle engaged in the international carriage of goods by road for hire or reward by any route, for journeys or parts of
           journeys effected for hire or reward within the territory of the Community, as laid down in Council Regulation (EEC)
           No 881/92 of 26 March 1992.
           Particular remarks: ......................................................................................................................................................................................
           ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
           This attestation shall be valid from ........................................................................ to ........................................................................
           Issued in ..............................................................................................., on ...............................................................................................
                                                                                                                                .......................................................................................................
                                                                                                                                                                                  (4)
           (1) The distinguishing signs are: (A) Austria, (B) Belgium, (DK) Denmark, (D) Germany, (GR) Greece, (E) Spain, (F) France, (FIN) Finland,
                (IRL) Ireland, (I) Italy, (L) Luxembourg, (NL) Netherlands, (P) Portugal, (S) Sweden, (UK) United Kingdom.
           (2) Personal data of driver: last name, first names, birth date and place, nationality, passport number.
           (3) Name or business name and full address of the haulier.
           (4) Signature and stamp of the issuing competent authority or body.
 ---pagebreak--- 27.3.2001            EN                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                                 C 96 E/211
                                                            (Second page of the attestation)
                                (Text in (one of) the official language(s) of the Member State issuing the attestation)
                                                                GENERAL PROVISIONS
          This attestation is issued under Council Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 of 26 March 1992 as modified, on access to the
          market in the carriage of goods by road within the Community to or from the territory of a Member State or passing
          across the territory of one or more Member States.
          It certifies that the driver named therein is entitled in the Member State issuing the attestation to drive a vehicle (1)
          engaged in international carriage on behalf of the haulier to whom the Community authorization is issued under
          Council Regulation (EEC) No 881/92 of 26 March 1992.
          The Driver attestation shall belong to the haulier who puts it at the disposal of the driver described therein when this
          driver drives a vehicle engaged in international carriage using a Community authorization issued to that haulier. The
          Driver attestation is not transferable. The Driver attestation shall only be valid as long as the conditions under which it
          was issued are still satisfied and must be returned immediately by the haulier to the issuing authorities if these
          conditions are no longer met.
          It may be withdrawn by the competent authority of the Member State which issued it, notably where the haulier has:
           not complied with all the conditions for using the attestation,
           supplied incorrect information with regard to the data needed for the issue or extension of the attestation.
          A certified copy of the attestation must be kept by the haulage undertaking.
          The original attestation must be kept in the vehicle and must be produced by the driver whenever required by an
          authorised inspecting officer.
          (1) Vehicle means a motor vehicle registered in a Member State or a coupled combination of vehicles, the motor vehicle of which at
              least is registered in a Member State, used exclusively for the carriage of goods.