site.btaEU Court Confirms Mobility Package's Validity; Annuls Requirement for Vehicles to Return Every 8 Weeks

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) annulled a part of European legislation, which stipulated that international trucks must return to a carrier's operational centre every eight weeks, the CJEU reported here on Friday. The European Court upheld all other parts of the new legislation, which had been challenged by Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta and Poland.

The Member States disputed six aspects of the so-called Mobility Package:

1. The prohibition on drivers taking their regular or compensatory weekly rest period in the vehicle;
2. The obligation on transport undertakings to organize the work of their drivers in such a way that they are able to return, during working hours, every three or four weeks to the operational centre of the undertaking or their place of residence, to start or spend at least their regular or compensatory weekly rest period there;
3. The bringing forward of the date of entry into force of the obligation to install second generation intelligent tachographs and, in general, the setting of the date of entry into force of the abovementioned prohibition and obligation;
4. The obligation for vehicles used for international transport to return to an operational centre situated in the Member State of establishment of the transport undertaking concerned every eight weeks;
5. The four-day waiting period during which, following a cabotage cycle carried out in a host Member State, (non-resident) hauliers are not allowed to carry out cabotage operations with the same vehicle in the same Member State;
6. The classification of drivers as ‘posted workers’ when they carry out cabotage operations, transport operations from one Member State to another where neither is the Member State of establishment of the transport undertaking (so-called ‘cross trade’ operations) or certain combined transport operations, so that they benefit from the terms and conditions of employment in force in the host Member State, in particular as regards remuneration.

By Friday’s judgment, the Court dismisses the actions, except in so far as they are directed against the obligation relating to the return of vehicles, which it annulled. The Parliament and the Council have not established that they had sufficient information at their disposal when that measure was adopted to enable them to assess its proportionality. The Court noted that concerned EU institutions now had the obligation to fill any legal vacuum created by the annulment of the act.

A spokesperson for the European Commission commented said that the Commission had no possibility for further action against the Court ruling, according to which the dropped bill was contrary to European law. He noted that the annulled text was not part of the original bill proposed by the Commission.