Speeches: Jean-Paul Deneuville, General Delegate, FNTR, France

7th IRU East-West Road Transport Conference Budapest, 15-16 May 2003 Budapest Congress Centre (BCC), Alkotas u. 63-67 - 1123 Budapest, Hungary

message delivered by Mr Causse, Vice Président, FNTR, France
Jean-Paul Deneuville
General Delegate, FNTR, France

IRU Question:

IRU ideas on the intervention of the FNTR (National Road Transport Federation) Chief Executive Officer(5 minutes)

For French road hauliers, the enlargement of the EU represents both a challenge and an opportunity to be grasped. Road haulage companies consider that the new enlarged single market must be approached as a co-operative venture with other companies. There are many types of mutual benefits in store from co-operation like this.

Keeping a close eye on the market should help to encourage equal conditions for competition. But we must know why we are monitoring this market and what we hope it will achieve.

European institutions and governments will be expected to implement measures to regulate transport (from a tax, social and technical point of view) in order to help and not penalise haulage operators.
There's no question that regulations for entering the profession must be revised and strengthened so that quality in the sector is improved even more?

FNTR Reply:
French road hauliers and the enlargement:

We are convinced that these meetings between East and West are not only useful but absolutely necessary. Lack of knowledge or even worse, ignorance, always increases fears and we want rather to communicate better so that we can get to know each other better.

The enlargement of the European Union will take place in about a year's time at a difficult time for our sector. In fact, for almost two years, road transport of goods has undergone a major economic crisis. In particular we must face a significant increase in costs which our contractors will find difficult to pass on to their customers. Today margins for French companies are getting closer and closer to 0%.
If the FNTR accepts the liberalisation of the market in Europe, we want liberalisation that will work towards standardising charges and internal regulation in the sector. If this does not happen the market will head towards all types of corrupt competition. It is for this reason that we are taking advantage of this opportunity for an East-West meeting to remind people of the expectations of French company bosses so that the conditions for exercising our profession in an enlarged Europe may be an opportunity.

Community documentation in the whole transport area is 10% of all community documentation which represents several hundred regulations, directives or decisions. For each mode of transport, if the new member states do not apply community regulations, this could lead to distortions in competition. This would not be acceptable and it is why we want, first of all, to draw the attention of the European Commission and the governments of future member states to the implementation of community regulations which will require an increase in administrative and inspection services.
Community regulations relating to road transport of goods includes a large range of requirements in economic (competition, taxation), social and technical terms.

First of all, concerning the question of competition, can community criteria for entry into the profession be observed by Eastern companies? We think that everything must be done to ensure that they reach this level and will soon be at the same level as companies in the current European Union. As far as cabotage is then concerned, we share, of course, the IRU approach which very early on showed the European authorities that liberalisation of the cabotage market within the Union as soon as the new states join is not possible. Depending on individual cases, it won't be for two to five years that we can start liberalising the cabotage market for future candidate countries.As far as tax is concerned, both in the West and in the East, the tax situation differs from one country to another. The European Commission's White Paper on Transport introduced the idea that each mode of transport should pay all the costs incurred. A framework directive is currently being prepared and our sector will ensure that roads that are already heavily taxed will finally find a proper assessment of their costs within a European framework bearing in mind that this must be true for all other modes of transport and also bearing in mind that if the calculation of costs results in an excess, that this money will then be allocated to the infrastructure. In fact, what we advocate is the adoption of a European infrastructure tariff system which is as simple as possible so that future member states can participate as well as soon as possible.To touch on social questions now, in France and in most of the countries of the present European Union, we are very worried about retaining jobs in our sector. In fact we fear that there will be job losses, particularly because wages are lower in the candidate countries. A study carried out by the German consultancy, Prognos, (carried out for the European Commission) on the costs of very long distance international transport, shows that the annual cost of a French driver is 36,000 euros per year compared with 13,000 euros in Poland and the Czech Republic and 12,000 euros in Hungary. We dread being faced with the danger of the mistakes of the merchant navy. Aren't we risking heading towards flags of convenience in goods road transport?Finally as far as technical questions are concerned, we would like to stress two aspects: the first involves infrastructure in the East and the second involves a subject that is very close to our hearts: safety. The moment they join the new member states will be an integral part of the transeuropean network, what will be done about the member countries in the European Union getting their road infrastructure up to standard? Linked with this question is the question of safety and with it the profession's image. You know, in particular, that the number of vehicles on the road in Eastern countries has increased significantly in the last few years and this situation thus poses a problem of safety that we shall have to try and resolve in as short a time as possible.

In conclusion, allow me to draw your attention once more to the 1993 European ruling on cabotage. Until 1st July 1998, there had been quotas for this and since this date it has been completely liberalised on condition that it is a 'temporary' measure. Well, given that there is no precise definition of this 'temporary nature' of cabotage, we realised with other European neighbours, that transport companies in the Fifteen may provide transport services in any member state almost freely and without limitation of time (besides, how can the regulatory bodies ensure that this European ruling is being applied properly with any certainty?)Consequently we think that the question of balance in the transport market within the EU should be put to the Fifteen today and tomorrow to the 25 (even if the new member states will not have the option of cabotage in the EU in the first few years). This is why the French federation is requesting that a certain number of points on the cabotage regulations should be clarified. We know that the Commission has been wrestling with this question. We are anxiously and attentively awaiting their reply.

All in all, for French company bosses, the enlargement of the EU will be a real opportunity if true standardisation is applied to all over a period of time, gradually, without a big bang, with the necessary decompression stages.

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