The council reached general approaches on the social and
market pillars of the first tranche of the ‘mobility
package’. The ‘social pillar’ is intended to establish a
specific regulatory regime for the posting of workers in
the road transport sector, and the ‘market pillar’ is
intended to introduce new regulatory requirements for the
operation of light commercial vehicles (vans) and to modify
the ‘cabotage’ rules for vehicles operating in countries
other than their country of establishment.
I welcomed the work that the Presidency had done to achieve
compromises on these challenging proposals, give the range
of view from Member States. During the discussion, I
pressed for a further reduction in the proposed cabotage
‘cooling-off period’ (a period of time between cabotage
operations) and for extending the period after which a
vehicle should return to base to 10 weeks. After a lengthy
debate a compromise was reached which included the
reduction of the ‘cabotage’ cooling-off period to 5 days,
clarifying when the posting of workers rules would apply to
different haulage operations, removing altogether the
requirement for the return of the vehicle, and retaining
the original proposal to ban drivers from taking weekly
rest in the cabin of their vehicles.
Following this, the Council reached a general approach on a
proposal from the second tranche of the ‘mobility package’,
to amend the current directive on combined transport. The
existing directive liberalises cabotage operations when
part of a freight journey that comprises a rail or sea leg.
The general approach included an amendment to these
cabotage provisions in line with the earlier compromise on
cabotage rules.
The Council reached a general approach on the proposed
directive on road infrastructure safety management (RISM),
from the third tranche of the ‘mobility package’.
The lunchtime debate consisted of ministers discussing how
to address airspace capacity constraints and was followed
by presentations from Eurocontrol Director General, Eamonn
Brennan and Transport Commissioner, .
Later, the Council reached 2 general approaches on the
proposed directive on minimum level of training for
seafarers and the proposed regulation establishing a
European maritime single window. In addition, the Council
adopted conclusions on inland waterway transport.
The Council reached a partial general approach on the
Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), endorsing the text
presented by the Presidency. The outstanding elements are
those subject to horizontal negotiations on the
multi-annual financial framework beyond 2020.
The Council noted the presidency’s progress reports on
discontinuing seasonal changes of time, rail passenger
rights, streamlining the trans-European transport network,
clean and energy efficient vehicles and electronic freight
transport information.
Finally, there were several information points from member
states, the Presidency and Commissioner Bulc under any
other business. The Presidency updated Council on the
provisional agreements reached with the European Parliament
on electronic road tolling and exchange of information,
safeguarding competition in air transport and aviation
wet-leasing. Commissioner Bulc noted good progress in
on-going EU-ASEAN aviation negotiations that she hoped
would conclude this year. In reply to a joint declaration
from Luxembourg, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the
Netherlands on the social agenda in aviation, Commissioner
Bulc noted that she would present a progress report on the
social agenda identifying actions for potential completion.
Ireland intervened to defend the value of new business
models in aviation. Commissioner Bulc also drew attention
to the 17 December conference on sustainable transport
infrastructure charging and internalisation of transport
externalities to be held in Brussels. The Presidency
provided an update on the EU’s space programme and the
outcome of the informal meeting of Transport and
Environment ministers held in Graz on the 29 to 30 October
2018. Finally, Romania presented transport plans for its
incoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
