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THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REJECTED THE NEW RULES FOR THE TRANSPORT SECTOR

On 4 July 2018 the European Parliament (EP) rejected the ’mobility package’ consisting of new rules on posting, driving, rest periods and the so called ‘cabotage’ in the transport sector. Ultimately, all the three documents were rejected and they will be reexamined in the Transport Committee.

In June 2018, the Transport Committee of the EP voted for the report that would remove the international carriage and passenger service from the scope of the general system directive of the posted workers, however, the cabotage (i.e. when non-resident carriers, after international delivery, carry out transport for a few days within the borders of another EU Member States) would not be removed. The main goal of the proposal was to improve working conditions for drivers and to tackle social dumping, but apparently the gap within the European Parliament still turned out to be too deep. According to the critics, the new rules would adversely affect the newly acceding Member States, since in principle the same rules should be applied for the posted workers in the field of wages and working conditions.

The European Committee has not been accepted the Transport Committee’s official position either, therefore, it is uncertain when the interinstitutional negotiations can be started. Now that the proposals have been voted out, the new rules for the transport sector are likely to be considerably delayed. Due to the fact that there are European elections in 2019, the dossier will likely be postponed for the next legislature.