The European Parliament adopted by 612 votes to 28 with 23 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic freight transport information.
As a reminder, the Commission proposal (i) requires competent authorities to accept regulatory information (for certain legal acts) in electronic form, and (ii) sets up of framework of certified eFTI platforms and service providers (by conformity assessment bodies).
The European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amended the Commission proposal as follows:
Enlarged scope
The purpose of the Regulation is to reduce the costs of processing transport information between authorities and economic operators, to improve the enforcement capabilities of the authorities and to encourage the digitalisation of the freight transport and logistics.
In order to reduce administrative formalities, the regulation lays down the conditions under which:
-the economic operators concerned are required to make regulatory information electronically available to the Member States´ competent authorities;
Member States’ competent authorities have to communicate electronically with the economic operators concerned as regards the provision of regulatory information.
The regulation will apply to regulatory information requirements for the transport of goods set out in international conventions applicable in the Union.
It should enable the development of European Platforms in order to exchange and easily share the information. The eFTI platforms shall be governed by the general principles of technological neutrality as well as interoperability.
Towards a complete digitalisation
Members considered that ‘smart’ digital enforcement necessitates all relevant information to become paperless and be available for competent authorities in electronic form. This will free up enforcement capacity, reduce unnecessary administrative burden on transport operators, better target high-risk operators and detect fraudulent practices. The use of electronic documents should therefore in the future become the rule.
Furthermore, in order to provide enforcement officials, including those performing roadside checks, with a clear and complete overview of the transport operators being checked, they should have direct and real-time access to all relevant information, so as to be able to detect infringements and abnormalities quicker and more efficiently.
Requirements for eFTI service providers
eFTI service providers should ensure that the data is interoperable and remain accessible, for a period of four years, in compliance with the relevant regulatory information requirements.
Certification
Certification of solutions and platforms are required to ensure the compliance with the eCMR protocol, data security and interoperability of the eFTI data set.
Members called for certification to be performed in an independent manner to avoid distortions of competition. Compliance should be ensured with existing, standardised platforms identified in international conventions that are applicable in the Union.
Existing IT systems, that are currently used by economic operators in the transport sector to provide regulatory information and that meet the functional requirements, should be certified as eFTI platforms.
Delegated acts
The proposal includes a large number of issues to be established by means of implementing acts. These issues include access and processing rules for competent authorities and functional requirements for eFTI platforms and service providers. Since these are issues of general application and aim to supplement certain non-essential elements of the legislative act, they should all be established by delegated acts.
The Commission should immediately start working on the necessary delegated acts in order to avoid further delays and to ensure that economic operators and Member States have enough time to prepare.
Evaluation
The Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Regulation three years from the date of application of the Regulation at the latest. This evaluation shall examine the possibility of extending the scope of this Regulation to certain business-to-business information that is necessary to prove compliance with the relevant requirements in the Union legal acts governing the transport of goods