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“After several years of negotiations on the Mobility Package, the Transport Committee approved the outcome of the tripartite dialogue (EU inter-institutional negotiations – BNS),” Virkkunen announced on Twitter on Thursday.
According to her, this legislation will guarantee a level playing field for all market participants, will improve road safety and working conditions for truck drivers.
The final approval of the Mobility Package in the Transport Committee means that there is one step left before the legislation is approved, which will still have to be approved by the EP in plenary session. This is believed to happen as early as June or July.
MEPs who spoke out against the mobility package, including Petras Auštrevičius, alternate member of the Transport Committee, tabled amendments, all of which were rejected on Monday. A total of 86 amendments were tabled due to different elements in the Mobility Package.
Some MEPs have proposed abandoning the proposal to return the tractors to their country of registration every eight weeks, and adjust the point that drivers must rest in their country of residence and allow drivers to remain in the country where the rest would take place.
Opponents of these and other provisions of the Mobility Package called it “discriminatory” and “contrary to the fundamental freedoms of the EU”.
Lithuania, which is one of the main critics of the mobility package, has called for its consideration to be postponed until the coronavirus pandemic ends and its impact on the transport sector can be assessed.
The mobility package is mainly supported by former EU members from Western Europe, such as Germany and France.
Probably the most debated provision is the obligation to periodically return tractors to their country of registration. The initiators of the new rules say it will help combat fake carriers when they are installed somewhere and operate elsewhere to cut costs.
Eastern Europeans say the new regime will remove peripheral transport companies from the market and increase road pollution.
The mobility package, which strengthens carriers, was approved by most Member States in December.
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