The European Commission has started the procedure to revise the European Union-Ukraine agreement on road transport of goods. The European Commission’s agreement to revise this agreement is the result of intensive efforts on the part of Poland, which has consistently pointed out that its functioning to date has had a negative impact on the Polish road haulage industry.
“Dozens of meetings, talks and negotiations with both the European Commission and the Ukrainian side have borne results”, said Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak. “We managed to convince our partners of the necessity of working on the revision of this agreement, the validity of which has so far become one of the main reasons for the protests of Polish hauliers”, added Minister Klimczak.
Due to intensive efforts, mainly on the Polish side, the European Commission considered the conclusions drawn from the functioning of the agreement so far and proposed an update of the agreement, consisting in introducing changes to it to facilitate its enforcement by Member States. Proposals for these amendments have been sent by the European Commission for further negotiation by the Member States in the Council of the European Union.
The changes include:
Introducing an obligation to have documents proving that the carrier is authorised to carry out international transport and that the transport is carried out under an agreement.
Introducing an obligation for hauliers going unladen to have certain documents proving that such carriage is directly related to a transit or bilateral operation (i.e. it is for goods to or from Ukraine), as required by the Agreement.
Strengthening carriers’ compliance with obligations related to operations permitted under the Agreement, combating fraud or falsification of drivers’ documents and road safety offences or misdemeanours.
Adding a new safeguard clause: in the event that the national road transport market in a specific geographical area is affected by serious disturbances attributable to the Agreement, the Agreement may be suspended in that geographical area.
Adrian Andrzejewski