Need to revise Directive 92/106 justified 02/05/16

The European Commission has concluded its REFIT Procedure¹ and published its Implementation Report².  The Report has confirmed that

• "the Directive continues to have a noticeable impact on the choice of Combined Transport."

• "The industry overwhelmingly indicated in the public consultation that similar results in the Combined Transport sector could not have been achieved with less burdensome measures."  And "public administrators also agreed that the results could not have been achieved at lower cost."

• ..."due to problems identified under effectiveness and efficiency (of the Directive), the Combined Transport Directive does not currently realise its full potential added value at EU level", which refers to: "problems reported by the industry that relate mainly to the inconsistent transposition or implementation of the Directive".

The Report concludes that the "Combined Transport Directive continues to be relevant for the purpose (however) there are considerable shortcomings in its effectiveness and efficiency".

UIRR has been calling for a comprehensive revision of Directive 92/106 since many years and hopes that, reading this Report, the European legislator will agree with this necessity as well.  The persistent problems of longer distance road haulage and the simultaneous existence of a proven alternative in Combined Transport, which not only offers a viable solution to all forms of pollution and energy efficiency challenges but also solves congestion, accident and social problems to a large extent, should convince every player to move swiftly and effectively to create the effective regulatory environment needed.

A major aim of European transport policy - as expressed in the EU Transport White Paper - is to reduce the adverse effects of road freight transport by using multimodal transport through a reduction of the share of road transport by shifting towards less polluting and more energy efficient modes of transport.  This aim remains outstanding as (longer distance) "road transport is responsible for the vast majority of environmental and social costs created by the transport sector".

The solution identified "to shift towards multimodal transport that uses in major part more sustainable modes of transport such as rail, inland waterways and maritime transport", also stays valid as the high negative externalities of the road sector continue to be a major problem.

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¹ http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-426_en.htm

² Executive summary: http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/evaluation/search/download.do?documentId=17170414, Full Report: http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/evaluation/search/download.do?documentId=17165337