Article 1 Subject matter
This Regulation establishes a legal framework for the electronic communication of regulatory information between the economic operators concerned and competent authorities in relation to the transport of goods on the territory of the Union. For that purpose, this Regulation: (a) lays down the conditions based on which competent authorities are required to accept regulatory information when that information is made available electronically by the economic operators concerned; (b) lays down rules on the provision of services related to making regulatory information available electronically by the economic operators concerned to competent authorities.
Article 2 Scope
1. This Regulation applies to: (a) regulatory information requirements set out in: (i) Article 6(1) of EEC Council Regulation No 11 ( 11 ) ; (ii) Article 3 of Council Directive 92/106/EEC ( 12 ) ; (iii) Article 8(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 13 ) ; (iv) point (c) of Article 16 and Article 18(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006; this Regulation is without prejudice to controls by customs offices provided for in relevant provisions of Union legal acts; (v) Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of Annex A to the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR), concluded at Geneva on 30 September 1957, as referred to in Section I.1 of Annex I to Directive 2008/68/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 14 ) ; Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of the Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID), appearing as Appendix C to COTIF concluded at Vilnius on 3 June 1999, as referred to in Section II.1 of Annex II to that Directive; and Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of the Regulations annexed to the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN), concluded at Geneva on 26 May 2000, as referred to in Section III.1 of Annex III to that Directive; (b) regulatory information requirements laid down in delegated or implementing acts adopted by the Commission pursuant to a Union legal act referred to in point (a) of this paragraph or pursuant to Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 15 ) or to Regulation (EC) No 300/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 16 ) . Those delegated or implementing acts shall be listed in Part A of Annex I to this Regulation; (c) regulatory information requirements set out in the provisions of national law listed in Part B of Annex I to this Regulation. 2. By 21 August 2021, Member States shall notify the Commission of the provisions of national law and corresponding regulatory information requirements that require the provision of information identical, in whole or in part, to the information to be provided pursuant to the regulatory information requirements referred to in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1. Subsequent to that notification, the Member States shall notify the Commission of any provisions of national law that: (a) introduce changes to regulatory information requirements set out in the provisions of national law listed in Part B of Annex I; or (b) lay down new relevant regulatory information requirements that require the provision of information identical, in whole or in part, to the information to be provided pursuant to the regulatory information requirements referred to in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1. Member States shall make such notifications within one month from the adoption of such provisions. 3. The Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 14, amending: (a) Part A of Annex I in order to incorporate references to any regulatory information requirements referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 of this Article; (b) Part B of Annex I in order to incorporate or delete references to national law and regulatory information requirements in accordance with the notifications made pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article.
Article 3 Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: (1) ‘regulatory information’ means information, whether or not presented in the form of a document, that is related to the transport of goods in the territory of the Union, including of goods in transit, which is to be made available by an economic operator concerned in accordance with the provisions referred to in Article 2(1) in order to prove compliance with the relevant requirements of the acts laying down those provisions; (2) ‘regulatory information requirement’ means a requirement to provide regulatory information; (3) ‘competent authority’ means a public authority, agency or other body which is competent to perform tasks pursuant to the legal acts referred to in Article 2(1) and for which access to regulatory information is necessary, such as checking, enforcing, validating or monitoring compliance on the territory of a Member State; (4) ‘electronic freight transport information’ or ‘eFTI’ means a set of data elements that are processed by electronic means for the purpose of exchanging regulatory information among the economic operators concerned and between the economic operators concerned and competent authorities; (5) ‘eFTI data subset’ means a set of structured data elements that correspond to the regulatory information required pursuant to specific Union legal act or national law referred to in Article 2(1); (6) ‘eFTI common data set’ means a comprehensive set of structured data elements that correspond to all the eFTI data subsets, where the data elements common to the different eFTI data subsets are included only once; (7) ‘data element’ means the smallest unit of information which has a unique definition and precise technical characteristics, such as format, length and character type; (8) ‘processing’ means an operation or set of operations performed on eFTI, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making eFTI available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction; (9) ‘operation log’ means an automated record of the electronic processing of eFTI; (10) ‘eFTI platform’ means a solution based on information and communication technology (ICT), such as an operating system, an operating environment, or a database, intended to be used for the processing of eFTI; (11) ‘eFTI platform developer’ means a natural or legal person which has developed or acquired an eFTI platform either for the purpose of processing regulatory information related to its own economic activity or for putting that platform on the market; (12) ‘eFTI service’ means a service consisting of eFTI processing by means of an eFTI platform, alone or in combination with other ICT solutions, including other eFTI platforms; (13) ‘eFTI service provider’ means a natural or legal person which provides an eFTI service to the economic operators concerned on the basis of a contract; (14) ‘economic operator concerned’ means a transport or logistics operator, or any other natural or legal person, who is responsible for making regulatory information available to competent authorities in accordance with the relevant regulatory information requirements; (15) ‘human-readable format’ means a way of presenting data in an electronic form that can be used as information by a natural person without requiring any further processing; (16) ‘machine-readable format’ means a way of presenting data in an electronic form that can be used for automatic processing by a machine; (17) ‘conformity assessment body’ means a conformity assessment body within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, which is accredited in accordance with that Regulation to carry out the conformity assessment of eFTI platforms or eFTI service providers; (18) ‘shipment’ means the transport of a determined set of goods, including waste, between the first place of pick-up and final place of delivery under the terms of a single transport contract or of multiple consecutive transport contracts, including, where applicable, the transfer between different modes of transport, irrespective of the quantity or number of containers, packages or pieces transported.
Article 4 Requirements for economic operators concerned
1. For the purposes of Article 5(1), (2) and (3), the economic operators concerned shall comply with the requirements set out in this Article. 2. Where the economic operators concerned make regulatory information available electronically to a competent authority, they shall do so on the basis of data processed on a certified eFTI platform and, if applicable, by a certified eFTI service provider. That regulatory information shall be made available by the economic operators concerned in machine-readable format and, at the request of the competent authority, in human-readable format. 3. Information in machine-readable format shall be made available via an authenticated and secure connection to the data source of an eFTI platform. The economic operators concerned shall communicate the unique electronic identifying link referred to in point (e) of Article 9(1) that enables the competent authority to uniquely identify the regulatory information related to the shipment. 4. Information in human-readable format requested by competent authorities shall be made available on the spot, on the screen of an electronic device owned by the economic operator concerned.
Article 5 Requirements for competent authorities
1. As from 30 months after the date of entry into force of the first of the delegated and implementing acts referred to in Articles 7 and 8, competent authorities shall accept regulatory information made available electronically by the economic operators concerned in accordance with Article 4, including where such regulatory information is requested by competent authorities as additional information. 2. Where the economic operator concerned has made, regulatory information required pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 available electronically in accordance with Article 4 of this Regulation, the competent authorities concerned shall also accept such regulatory information without the agreement referred to in Article 26(3) and (4) of Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006. 3. Where regulatory information required pursuant to a specific Union legal act or national law referred to in Article 2(1) includes official validation, such as stamps or certificates, the respective authority shall provide that validation electronically, in accordance with the requirements established by the delegated and implementing acts referred to in Articles 7 and 8. 4. In order to comply with the requirements set out in paragraphs 1 to 3 of this Article, Member States shall take measures to enable all their competent authorities to access and process regulatory information made available by the economic operators concerned in accordance with Article 4. Those measures shall comply with delegated and implementing acts referred to in Articles 7 and 8.
Article 6 Confidential commercial information
Competent authorities, eFTI service providers and the economic operators concerned shall take measures to ensure the confidentiality of commercial information that is processed and exchanged in accordance with this Regulation and ensure that such information may be accessed and processed only when authorised.
Article 7 eFTI common data set and eFTI data subsets
1. The Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 14 to supplement this Regulation by establishing and amending the eFTI common data set and eFTI data subsets in relation to the respective regulatory information requirements referred to in Article 2(1), including corresponding specifications on the definition and technical characteristics for each data element included in the eFTI common data set and eFTI data subsets. 2. When adopting the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall: (a) take into account relevant international conventions and Union law; and (b) seek to ensure the interoperability of the eFTI common data set and eFTI data subsets with relevant data models that are accepted internationally or at Union level, including multimodal data models. 3. The first such delegated act shall cover all the elements referred to in paragraph 1 and shall be adopted no later than 21 February 2023.
Article 8 Common procedures and rules for access
1. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down common procedures and detailed rules, including common technical specifications, for access by competent authorities to eFTI platforms, including procedures for the processing of regulatory information and for communication between competent authorities and the economic operators concerned in relation to that information. 2. When adopting the implementing acts referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall seek to enhance the efficiency of the administrative procedures and to minimise compliance costs both for the economic operators concerned and competent authorities. 3. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2). The first such implementing act shall cover all the elements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and shall be adopted no later than 21 February 2023.
Article 9 Functional requirements for eFTI platforms
1. The eFTI platforms used for processing regulatory information shall provide functionalities that ensure that: (a) personal data can be processed in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679; (b) commercial data can be processed in accordance with Article 6; (c) competent authorities can access and process data in accordance with the specifications adopted by means of delegated and implementing acts referred to in Articles 7 and 8; (d) the economic operators concerned can make information available to competent authorities in accordance with Article 4; (e) a unique electronic identifying link can be established between a shipment and the related data elements, including a structured reference to the eFTI platform where the data is made available, such as a unique reference identifier; (f) data can be processed solely on the basis of authorised and authenticated access; (g) all data processing is duly recorded in operation logs in order to allow, as a minimum, the identification of each distinct processing operation, the natural or legal person having made the operation and the sequencing of the operations on each individual data element; if an operation involves modifying or erasing an existing data element, the original data element shall be preserved; (h) data can be archived and remain accessible for competent authorities in accordance with the relevant Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements; (i) the operation logs referred to in point (g) of this paragraph are archived and remain accessible for competent authorities for auditing purposes for the period of time specified in the relevant Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements and, for monitoring purposes, for the periods of time referred to in Article 17; (j) data is protected against corruption and theft; (k) the data elements processed correspond to the eFTI common data set and to eFTI data subsets as established by the delegated acts referred to in Article 7, and can be processed in any of the official languages of the Union as provided for by the relevant Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements. 2. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down detailed specifications regarding the requirements set out in paragraph 1 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2). When adopting those specifications, the Commission shall: (a) seek to ensure the interoperability of the eFTI platforms; (b) take into account relevant existing technical solutions and standards; (c) ensure that those specifications remain, to the largest extent possible, technologically neutral. The first such implementing act shall cover all the elements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and shall be adopted no later than 21 August 2023.
Article 10 Requirements for eFTI service providers
1. eFTI service providers shall ensure that: (a) data is processed only by authorised users and in accordance with clearly defined and assigned processing rights within the eFTI platform, in accordance with the relevant regulatory information requirements; (b) data is stored and accessible in accordance with the Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements; (c) competent authorities have immediate access to regulatory information concerning a freight transport operation processed by means of their eFTI platforms, free of any charges or fees; (d) data is appropriately secured, including against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage. 2. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down detailed rules regarding the requirements set out in paragraph 1 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2). The first such implementing act covering all the elements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be adopted no later than 21 August 2023.
Article 11 Conformity assessment bodies
1. Conformity assessment bodies shall be accredited in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 for the purposes of performing the certification of eFTI platforms and eFTI service providers as set out in Articles 12 and 13 of this Regulation. 2. For the purposes of accreditation, conformity assessment bodies shall meet the requirements laid down in Annex II. National accreditation bodies shall communicate to the national authority designated in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article the address of the website where they make publicly available the information on the accredited conformity assessment bodies, including an up-to-date list of these bodies. 3. Each Member State shall designate an authority that shall maintain an up-to-date list of the accredited conformity assessment bodies, eFTI platforms and eFTI service providers which hold a valid certification on the basis of the information provided pursuant to paragraph (2) of this Article and to Article 12(2) and Article 13(2). Those designated national authorities shall make that list publicly available on an official government website. 4. By 31 March each year, those designated national authorities shall notify to the Commission the list referred to in paragraph 3 together with the address of the website where that list is publicly available. The Commission shall publish those website addresses on its official website.
Article 12 Certification of eFTI platforms
1. Upon application by an eFTI platform developer, a conformity assessment body shall assess the compliance of the eFTI platform with the requirements laid down in Article 9(1). In the case of a positive assessment, the conformity assessment body shall issue a compliance certificate for that eFTI platform. In the case of a negative assessment, the conformity assessment body shall provide the reasons for the negative assessment to the applicant. 2. Each conformity assessment body shall maintain an up-to-date list of the eFTI platforms that it has certified and for which it has withdrawn or suspended certification. It shall make that list publicly available on its website and shall communicate the address of that website to the designated national authority referred to in Article 11(3). 3. Information made available to competent authorities by means of a certified eFTI platform shall be accompanied by a certification mark. 4. The eFTI platform developer shall apply for a reassessment of its certification if the technical specifications laid down in the implementing acts referred to in Article 9(2) are revised. 5. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 14 to supplement this Regulation by laying down rules on the certification of eFTI platforms and on the use of the certification mark, including rules on the renewal, suspension and withdrawal of certification.
Article 13 Certification of eFTI service providers
1. Upon application by an eFTI service provider, a conformity assessment body shall assess the compliance of the eFTI service provider with the requirements laid down in Article 10(1). In the case of a positive assessment, the conformity assessment body shall issue a compliance certificate. In the case of a negative assessment, the conformity assessment body shall provide the reasons for the negative assessment to the applicant. 2. Each conformity assessment body shall maintain an up-to-date list of the eFTI service providers that it has certified and for which it has withdrawn or suspended certification. It shall make that list publicly available on its website and shall communicate the address of that website to the designated national authority referred to in Article 11(3). 3. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 14 to supplement this Regulation by laying down rules on certification of eFTI service providers, including rules on the renewal, suspension and withdrawal of certification.
Article 14 Exercise of the delegation
1. The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article. 2. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article 2(3), Article 7, Article 12(5) and Article 13(3) shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from 20 August 2020. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power no later than nine months before the end of the five-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension no later than three months before the end of each period. 3. The delegation of power referred to in Article 2(3), Article 7, Article 12(5), Article 13(3) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force. 4. Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making. 5. As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council. 6. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 2(3), Article 7, Article 12(5) and Article 13(3) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or by the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and to the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.
Article 15 Committee procedure
1. The Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. 2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.
Article 16 Review
1. No later than 21 February 2029, the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Regulation and present a report on the main findings to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the European Economic and Social Committee. The Commission shall also assess possible initiatives with a view in particular to: (a) establishing the obligation for economic operators to make available electronically regulatory information to competent authorities, in accordance with this Regulation; (b) establishing further interoperability and interconnectivity between the eFTI environment and the different ICT systems and platforms used for recording and processing regulatory information as provided for in other Union transport law. These assessments shall in particular cover the amendment of this Regulation and that of other relevant Union legal acts and shall be accompanied, where appropriate, by a legislative proposal. 2. Member States shall provide the Commission with the necessary information set out in Article 17 for the preparation of the report referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.
Article 17 Monitoring
By 21 August 2027, and every five years thereafter, Member States shall provide the Commission, on the basis of the operation logs referred to in points (g) and (i) of Article 9(1), with the number of times competent authorities accessed and processed the regulatory information that was made available electronically by the economic operators concerned in accordance with Article 4. That information shall be provided in respect of each year covered by the reporting period.
Article 18 Entry into force and application
1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union . 2. It shall apply from 21 August 2024. 3. However, Article 2(2), Article 5(4), Article 7, Article 8, Article 9(2) and Article 10(2) shall apply from the date of entry into force of this Regulation.