Parliament closes in on pollution from lorries

EU transport policy

In the beginning there was EU transport policy. This was the first policy enshrined in the 1957 Rome treaty and garnered political attention and regulations, decades before European politicians worried about the environment.
According to the European Commission, those first decades of policy are “a classic tale of how creating a single European market has spurred competition”. During these years, the EU opened road freight and coach markets, created common licences and dismantled barriers to enable companies to start haulage companies anywhere in the EU.
The International Road Transport Union (IRU), representing lorry drivers, coaches and taxis, suggests that the story of the single market has several unfinished chapters. The IRU lists numerous obstacles – from the absence of EU rules on abnormal loads to “burdensome” rules on digital tachographs, compulsory devices that record a lorry's speed, distance covered and rest times.
One current priority for the EU is to revise common rules on working conditions for lorry drivers. The Union is in the process of revising a 2002 directive to ensure that the same rules on hours and rest time apply to all drivers. The Commission wants to close a loophole that allows drivers to register falsely as self-employed to enable companies to evade EU regulations.
But a bigger question is ensuring that other modes of transport are better able to compete with road transport. The Commission wants to shift 20 billion tonnes of freight each year from road transport to shipping and rail, to alleviate pressure on Europe's congested roads and reduce pollution. Under the Marco Polo programme, €450 million will be allocated from the EU budget in 2006-13 to this aim. Sources: Eurostat, ECMT, UIC, European Commission and national figures