Combined transport of goods between Member States

PURPOSE: to promote the transition from road freight to more environmentally friendly modes of transport.

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: reducing the negative impact of transport activities remains one of the main goals of the Union's transport policy. With the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in force, the transition to a modern and low-carbon economy will need to accelerate.

Council Directive 92/106/EEC which establishes measures to encourage the development of combined transport, is the only legislative act of the Union to directly incentivise the shift from road freight to lower emission transport modes such as inland waterways, maritime and rail.

However, since the Directive was adopted in 1992, some of these conditions, e.g. the use of paper transport documents and stamps as proof of eligibility for combined transport and the freight market environment have undergone considerable changes.

While the Directive has helped shift a considerable amount of freight away from road, shortcomings in the implementation of that Directive and the limited scope of its support measures, have significantly reduced its impact.

According to estimations, the goal of reaching 30% of road freight over 300 km shifted to other modes of transport such as rail or waterborne transport by 2030, and more than 50% by 2050, in order to optimise the performance of multimodal logistic chains, including by making greater use of more energy-efficient modes, has been slower than expected and according to the current projections, will not be reached.

In order to improve the competitiveness of combined transport compared to long-distance road freight, thereby strengthening the shift to other modes for the transport of goods, the Commission considers that a revision of the Directive is necessary in order to: (i) clarifying and extending the definition of combined transport; (ii) improving the monitoring of eligibility and enforcement conditions; (iii) increasing the effectiveness of incentives; and (iv) improving the reporting and monitoring conditions of the Directive.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the strategic option chosen aims to simplify the eligibility criteria, better define the enforcement conditions and broaden the economic support measures.

CONTENT: this initiative aims to support multimodality and strengthen the shift from road freight by addressing the shortcomings of the existing legislation (Directive 92/106/EEC) and in particular by extending its scope using a broader set of possible support measures.

In concrete terms, the proposal aims to:

• review the definition of  ‘combined transport’ by extending its scope to national services and by further specifying the maximum distance of the road leg as 150 km or 20 % of the total distance, irrespective of the non-road leg type (rail, inland waterways or maritime), while ensuring that flexibility is allowed due to specific geographical or operational constraints in Member States;
• extend the economic support measures put in place by the Member States, i.e. investment support and operational support (e.g. vehicle tax breaks) and additional support measures that Member States may adopt to complement existing ones in order to reduce the cost of a combined transport operation and to make it more competitive compared to the equivalent road-only operation;
• specifies which documents an operator must provide to demonstrate the existence of combined transport and receive assistance from the State. Thus, the proposal: (i) defines the condition for road transport to be considered as part of a combined transport operation; (ii) lists and details the data to be provided as evidence; (iii) states that no additional document shall be required to prove the combined transport operation; (iv) provides the conditions of presentation of the evidence, including for the purposes of a roadside check. The Commission proposes to use documents in electronic format more efficiently;
• introduces the obligation for Member States to report to the Commission, 18 months after the date for transposition of the Directive, data on the conditions of the combined transport market in their territory, including on the relevant infrastructure and the adopted national support measures.

DELEGATED ACTS: the proposal contains provisions empowering the Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.