site.btaGovernment Backs Bulgarian Road Hauliers in Opposition to EU Mobility Package

Sofia, May 8 (BTA) - Emerging from a meeting of representatives of Bulgaria's road haulage industry with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov here on Tuesday, Transport, Information Technology and Communications Minister Ivaylo Moskovski expressed the Government's full support for the hauliers' stand against the EU Mobility Package.

"Our position diverges from the demands, above all of France, concerning the Mobility Package," Moskovski added.

He outlined the Government's action plan. He said that Prime Minister Borissov will hold meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday and Thursday, which are not occasioned by the subject but at which Borissov has pledged to discuss the Cabinet's position. EU Mobility and Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc has also been invited to visit Bulgaria in search for a sensible solution.

Moskovski said that if he is compelled to preside over a EU Transport Council meeting on the texts formulated as proposed, he will walk out of the Council.

He outlined the principal objections of Bulgarian transport workers to the "Mobility Package". Bulgaria categorically opposes the requirements for drivers to return home, which the Minister described as "a violation of the rights of citizens to a free choice of the way they wish to spend their rest". The second moot point is about the time during which this rest period should take place. The third moot point is about the ban on spending the rest in the sleeper cab of the truck. "Once the carriers are forced to pay for this convenience of their vehicle and it is not cheap, they should be able to use it," Moskovski argued.

He noted that in case the cargo or vehicle is damaged in the driver's absence, insurers refuse to pay a claim. In his words, France's demand that truckers must be bound to spend their rest at a motel or hotel should be met only provided the security of the cargo or vehicle can be guaranteed.

Another issue on which the Cabinet backs the Bulgarian carriers is their disagreement with the day from which per diem allowances should start to be paid at the level of the Member State in which the driver is located. Options ranging from three to seven days on a monthly basis are considered now. Moskovski explained that this means that after the expiry of such a period, each driver must start to be paid a per diem allowance for the respective State, which is practically impossible, according to the Bulgarian side. Small and midsize businesses with several trucks cannot be required to keep such "crazy accounts", as the Minister put it.

Another debatable issue is the so-called "cabotage" (transporting goods between two places in the same Member State by a transport operator from another Member States).

The Transport Minister said that a difficult debate has yet to take place. In his opinion, this debate is blocked at the working group level because the French representative walked out from the latest meeting of the working group.

The hauliers said they had never been more united and thanked the Government and the Prime Minister for the support. They will stage a protest on May 16 and 17. They argue that Bulgaria is the Member State worst hit by the proposed changes. Most of the 12,500 companies engaged in international road transport will be forced into bankruptcy, they predict. The better ones will move to other European countries, and the rest will hardly survive. The operators called on trade unions to back them. The road haulage industry generates 15 per cent of this country's GDP and even 18 per cent, if the additional activities are taken into consideration. It provides livelihood to some 190,000 workers. A total of 240,000 Bulgarians (the truckers and their families) would be affected by what experts describe as an undeclared trade war between West and East.

Under the EU Mobility Package, which has long been the subject of tough negotiations between Member States and which has yet to be laid before the European Parliament, heavy-duty truck drivers from Eastern Europe are to be paid the same per diem allowances as those from Western Europe and will be required to spend the mandatory 45-hour weekly rest at a hotel and go back home once every three weeks. The problem is that East European carriers cannot afford such costs: the per diem allowances which they pay truckers now are nearly half the amount in Western Europe.

The proponents of the package (France, Germany, Austria and Italy) argue that East European hauliers undercut the prices of truck transportation in the continent by offering lower-cost hauls by paying their drivers less. The opponents (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) insist that the changes would deprive their carriers of their competitive advantage and would ruin their business.