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EU Newsletter: volume VIII, issue: 39February 07, 2008
The 7th IRU Symposium of Lawyers will be held on 30 April 2008 in
Addressing the EU Commission stakeholder consultation meeting on the "Internalisation of External Costs" on 31 January, IRU Head of Sustainable Development Jens Hügel warned that, if applied to road transport, the “polluter pays” principle runs the risk of regulatory failure which will produce additional costs for the European economy. Policy-makers consider the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) as the only way to internalise external costs. However, this is not based on any cost-benefit analysis. It is equally too simplistic and inadequate to respond effectively to the internalisation debate taking place in the EU. It is rather an easy way to implement yet another government tax collection scheme, without actually reducing any external costs! More importantly, the dogmatic PPP approach contradicts the EU’s “Better Regulation Initiative”, which calls for any policy-making to be based on a regulatory impact assessment, since the PPP already indicates which party should cover external costs, without conducting any cost-benefit analysis. The IRU thus advocates the Cheapest Cost Avoider principle (CCAP), which won Ronald Coase a Nobel Prize, as a sound basis for assessing internalisation policies, which has superseded the PPP in many economic circles. The underlying principle of the CCAP is that the stakeholder which can prevent (or abate) external costs at the lowest cost for the overall economy should take action. This is of particular significance if policies are to prevent the price of internalising external costs exceeding the external costs themselves. IRU Head of EU Fiscal Affairs Damian Viccars said, ‘’The IRU is convinced that in order to achieve sustainable development, economic growth and competitiveness in Europe, the CCAP, which is based on sound cost-benefit analyses, must be applied to all questions concerning the internalisation of external costs in road transport instead of the economically outdated and misguided PPP.
On 28 January the International Road Transport Union handed over to EU Commission Vice President and Transport Commissioner, Jacques Barrot, a petition signed by some 20,000 managers and drivers from coach companies across This petition was also handed over to the Chairman of the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee, Paolo Costa – rapporteur of the recently adopted Parliamentary resolution on a Renewed EU Tourism Policy, which urges the European Commission to examine “possibilities of postponing the rest period after roundtrips (not exceeding 12 days)”. In April 2007, the removal of the 12-day derogation for international occasional EU coach transport created a major crisis within the coach tourism market. Ever since, coach tour operators have reported a dramatic cost increase of up to 30% resulting from the lost derogation, as well as negative consequences for drivers’ welfare (wages, employment stability, work life balance, job satisfaction, etc.), with companies reporting that as many as 20% of drivers are considering leaving the profession because of the new rules. IRU Vice President and President of the IRU’s Passenger Transport Council, Graham Smith, said: “Every day that passes is deepening the crisis in our industry and multiplying the difficulties that we face as operators and that our drivers have to cope with on the road. The only sensible remedy for this obvious mistake, an opinion that is increasingly shared by policy decision-makers in the European Parliament and Council, is that the Commission introduce a proposal to urgently reinstate the 12-day derogation.”
Addressing the International Transport Forum Stakeholder meeting on "Energy and Transport" in Paris on 24 January, IRU Head of Sustainable Development Jens Hügel highlighted that while every country has a fiscal policy on transport fuel, only few countries have a true energy policy: “An appropriate energy policy should be based on the diversification of the energy used in fixed installations where viable alternatives to oil exist. This should be coupled with a moderate and balanced fiscal policy where no viable alternatives to oil exist, such as road transport". He added that CO2 emission taxation will merely fill government coffers rather than reducing CO2 emissions and that developing technical innovations, such as the Modular Concept, is key to reducing commercial road transport's CO2 emissions.
“Professional drivers need a uniform road design across The IRU calls for the extension of uniform and binding safety standards for the whole motorway network and parking areas. “Moreover, this directive could serve for identification and removal of bottlenecks and the establishment of intelligent traffic management systems”, said Nielsen. Enrico Grillo-Pasquarelli, Land Transport Director at DG TREN, justified the proposal with the fact that 55% of the main axes of the TENs do not meet the intended safety requirements.
The EU Commission, DG TREN, has awarded the contract for the TUNER project to a TISPOL lead consortium of which the TUNER stands for Transport Undertakings Electronic Register and is a research project to define the guidelines to establish a European register of road transport undertakings. It will prepare a detailed overview of the existing National Registers, prepare a detailed overview and analysis of the needs of the users and identify the legal requirements. Furthermore, an assessment of the various possible organisational arrangements and of the available technical options will be made as well as a refined estimate of global costs. Finally, recommendations and guidelines on the establishment of the register will be prepared. The project will run over 13 months. It should be seen in the framework of the EU Commission proposals for regulations on access to the profession, access to the road haulage market and access to the market of European bus and coach services. Other Members of the consortium are Euro Control Route (ECR), the British Consultant IBI Group, the The role of the On 13 April 2007 the IRU General Assembly adopted a ( / ) . The IRU considers that the quality criteria of the access to the profession should always remain the core of any relevant legislation. However, as a matter of priority, its application should be much more reinforced and better harmonized through measures such as:
On 22 January, the Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN) of the European Parliament adopted the amended Grosch Report (endefr) on the Commission Proposal for a Regulation on common rules for access to the market for coach and bus services in the EU. On 8 November 2007 the on the Commission proposal ( / ), with concrete recommendations for modifications in the text of the proposal, many of which were reflected in the Grosch report.
On 22 January, the Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN) of the European Parliament adopted the amended Grosch Report (enfrde) on the Commission Proposal for a Regulation on common rules for access to the international road haulage market in the EU. In particular, Members will have to express their opinion on the issue of road haulage cabotage. On 31 October 2007 the on the Commission proposal ( / ), with concrete recommendations for modifications in the text of the proposal, many of which were reflected in the Grosch report.
On 29 January the Committee on Economic and Fiscal Affairs of the European Parliament (ECON) adopted Olle Schmidt’s (ALDE, SE) report (EN / FR / DE) on the Commission proposal for a Directive on the adjustment of special tax arrangements for gas oil used as motor fuel for commercial purposes and the coordination of taxation of unleaded petrol and gas oilused as motor fuel.The adopted text proposes that the current EU-wide minimum rate of tax on diesel should be increased to match the current minimum rate for unleaded petrol, but no further. The Committee also voted in favour of setting a limit on further petrol and diesel tax increases in the Member States which already have the highest taxes. The European Commission says the wide variation in rates of commercial diesel (officially known as gas oil) taxes creates distortions in the road haulage market – and also increases environmental damage by encouraging “fuel tourism” by hauliers (i.e. making special journeys or using longer routes in order to fill up in a country with low taxes). Also, since diesel and petrol have similar impacts, especially from the point of view of CO2 emissions, there is no environmental reason for the two minimum rates to differ. The Commission is therefore proposing to raise the minimum rate on diesel up to the minimum rate on petrol. As usual with taxation matters, Parliament’s role is consultative. Once the plenary has voted, the final decision is for the Council, which can act only if it can reach unanimity. the IRU supports the harmonisation of excise duty on diesel fuel for professional use,particularly if tax rates are harmonised at the lowest possible level.The IRU maintains that an upper limit for excise duty should be adopted at EU level.Distortions of competition become more serious when differences in fuel duty exist between neighbouring countries. Similarly, distortions of competition between transport modes resulting from unequal fuel taxation must be considered as much as distortions of competition within the road transport sector.
The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Parliament (ENVI) adopted Dorette Corbey’s (ESP, NL) report (EN / FR / DE) on the Commission’s proposal for a directive regarding the specification of petrol, diesel and gas-oil and introducing a mechanism to monitor and the introduction of a mechanism to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the use of road transport fuels and amending Council Directive 1999/32/EC, as regards the specification of fuel used by inland waterway vessels and repealing Directive 93/12/EEC last 6 December 2007. The Commission proposal aims to promote increased use of biofuels by requiring all fuel suppliers to cut greenhouse gas emissions produced by their fuels throughout their life-cycle by 10% between 2011 and 2020. On 28 January 2008 rapporteur Corbey told the Members of ENVIduring a formal exchange of views on a possible first reading agreement with Council that apparently "Council is moving to our direction”. One of the main issues at stake is whether binding "sustainability criteria" should be included in the Directive. The Slovenian Presidency is expected to decide on 5 February whether to accept the offer. The Commission has also proposed sustainability criteria in a draft Directive on renewables, presented on 23 January, but rapporteur Corbey fears that those criteria will arrive too late to prevent fuel makers from investing in environmentally harmful biofuels, blamed for provoking food price hikes, deforestation and water shortages. In addition to more stringent limit values, the proposal introduces provisions on off cycle emissions, on-board diagnostic, access to repair information, durability of pollution control devices, replacement pollution control devices, conformity of in-service engines and vehicles, carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption measurement. The proposal also foresees the introduction of a particle number limit value. These measures aim at reinforcing the effectiveness of heavy vehicle emissions legislation.
On 23 January the EU Commission adopted an ambitious set of proposals aimed at combating climate change in the European Union. This package was launched in January 2007 and was discussed during the European Council of March 2007 after which it was further fine tuned by the EU Commission. The different texts and proposals will now enter the decision-making procedure and will be sent to the European Parliament and the Council. The package contains the following texts:
With this package, the European Union wishes to reduce its dependency on energy imports and its CO2 emissions, to obtain by 2020 more energy from renewable sources and to have more biofuels in transport, expecting a reduction of oil and gas imports of about €50 billion by 2020. In 2012, CO2 emissions should be reduced by 20% compared to 1990 levels. The EU has imposed this target on itself. Compared to 2005 levels, a 14% reduction is still needed to achieve this target. The key strategy to achieve a CO2 emissions reduction is the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). There will be some changes. Since 2005 ETS happens at national level. From 2013 onwards, it will move to a European level. Revenue from the ETS, estimated between €30-50 billion, should be reinvested in the development of renewable energy sources. Industries in the ETS will have to pay the market price for their rights to pollute. Until now these rights were granted free of charge. Transport is excluded from ETS except for aviation which will enter the scheme in 2013. Rail, heavily dependent on electricity, will feel an indirect impact as the electricity sector will have to pay for its right to pollute. The EU could propose separate measures to cover those transport modes which are excluded from ETS or could impose individual reduction targets on each The EU will also impose a target of 10% biofuel use in transport by 2020 for every The EU climate change package is extremely ambitious, and it could turn out to be very unrealistic. Until now, only 6% of the targeted CO2 emission reductions have been achieved. The European Climate Change Policy Review which was undertaken in 2006 demonstrated that the Member States are lagging behind in their commitments. So, it is not certain that another 14% reduction will be achieved by 2012. Transport is responsible for about 30% of CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, none of the documents give a breakdown of the different transport modes and for road transport, and so the EU does not give any figures on the part played by heavy duty vehicles. Based on United Nations figures the contribution of road freight transport only amounts to about 3% of CO2 emissions. There is a lack of transparency, clarity and consistency as to what measures will be undertaken to reduce CO2 emissions in transport and what will apply to which mode of transport. ETS is seen as the key strategy to reduce CO2 emissions. Sectors like agriculture, construction and transport (except aviation) are excluded from the scope of ETS. For road transport, this is positive because it is questionable to which extent a complicated system such as ETS can be applied to the road transport sector which consists to a very large extent of small and medium-sized enterprises. The electricity producers will fall under the ETS and polluting rights will become more expensive. It needs to be seen to which extent the cost of these polluting rights will be transferred to customers such as the railways and public transport providers. It is not clear how road transport and especially heavy duty vehicles will be tackled. Possible EU measures are mentioned but no details are given. It is possible that vehicle taxation could become CO2 related. CO2 emissions have already become part of the internalisation of external costs debate and currently the Polluter Pays Principle will be used to charge the road transport industry for the emissions. Member States are also be expected to undertake national policy measures. This could lead to discrimination and distortion of competition if certain Member States decide to go ahead with measures and others not. Taxing CO2 emissions is a profitable business for governments, and the EU plan and the The EU Commission is also keen on increasing the use of biofuels in transport but is also increasingly becoming aware of there are environmental issues linked to their production. Therefore, in the proposal, guarantees are sought about the environmentally friendliness of the biofuels to be used in transport. However, biofuels are under real market conditions not an economically viable alternative to fossil fuels.
On 31st of January, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the content of a European "Small Business Act". Its objective is to put small and medium sized enterprises at the forefront of decision-making in the EU and to introduce concrete measures to unlock the SMEs' growth potential. It will include new initiatives to reduce regulatory burden on SMEs, facilitate access to Single Market/public procurement, help provide necessary financial/human resources for SME development and help SMEs face the challenge of globalization and climate change. The preparation of a "Small Business Act" for Commenting on the launch of the public consultation, Vice President Günter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry policy, said: "The crucial role of SMEs and entrepreneurs for The document underpinning the consultation identified six areas to be examined, but other areas can emerge from the public consultation:
The European Commission aims at proposing the "Small Business Act" for http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sme/index_en.htm The consultation documents can also be found online (EN / FR / DE).
Belgium: prospects of more frequent lorry controls According to the Belgian Automobile Association, lorry controls in Source: ITD International of 24 January 2008 As from 21 January 2008 it is not allowed to drive in Source: ITD International of 24 January 2008 The authorities in
Source: ITD International of 24 January 2008 Cabotage: New rules on the posting of drivers to France All European road transport companies doing cabotage in Source:La Letre du Transport Routier no. 1039 of 12 January 2008 The quality of national highways has suffered considerably between examinations from 2000 and 2003/2004. The motorway network is slightly better. It improved slightly between examinations from 2002 and 2005/2006 concerning maintained sections but has worsened concerning badly maintained sections Source: DVZ of 29 January 2008 News from around the world(Road transport news from IRU members & partners around the world)
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