The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted the report by Lucy ANDERSON (S&D, UK) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on cross-border parcel delivery services.
The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, exercising its prerogative as an associated committee in accordance with Article 54 of the Rules of Procedure, also gave its opinion on the report.
The committee recommended that the European Parliaments position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows.
Objectives: this Regulation establishes specific provisions to foster better accessibility for users to cross-border parcel delivery services, in addition to the provisions set out in Directive 97/67/EC, concerning:
Members defined the "package" as a postal item or shipment, with or without commercial value, other than an item of correspondence with a weight not exceeding 31.5 kg.
Level of harmonisation: it is stipulated that the requirements laid down in this Regulation are minimum requirements and shall not prevent any Member State from maintaining or introducing additional measures, in order to achieve better accessibility for users to efficient and affordable cross-border parcel delivery services.
Disclosure of information: Members pointed out that all parcel delivery service providers shall submit the following information to the national regulatory authority of the Member State in which they are established unless the national regulatory authority has already requested and received such information:
Those provisions shall not apply to any parcel delivery service provider, which employed over the previous calendar year on average fewer than 50 persons, unless that provider is established in more than one Member State.
Assessment of single piece tariffs: if the national regulatory authority deems it necessary, it may objectively assess, in line with the principles set out in Directive 97/67/EC, cross-border tariffs in respect of the categories of single piece parcels listed in the Annex I which fall under its Member States universal service obligation, in order to identify the cross-border tariffs for parcel delivery services originating in its Member State that it considers unreasonably high.
The assessment shall take into account:
If the national regulatory authority deems it to be necessary, it shall request from the parcel delivery service provider or providers concerned any further relevant evidence in relation to those tariffs that may be required for the assessment to be made. Such evidence may include specific transportation or handling costs, terminal rates and bilateral volumes between different cross-border parcel delivery service providers.
Members deleted Article 6 on transparent and non-discriminatory cross-border access from the proposal.
Information and quality standards: all traders concluding sales contracts with users that include the sending of cross-border parcels shall make available to users at the pre-contractual stage, the following information:
Confidentiality: Members stated that where, in accordance with Union and national business confidentiality rules, a national regulatory authority considers certain information to be confidential in nature, the national regulatory authorities concerned shall respect that confidentiality.
Report: Members considered that the Commission's evaluation report on the application of the Regulation should be produced following consultation with all relevant stakeholders, and be presented every three years, especially given the dynamic and rapidly changing nature of e-commerce markets.