The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted the recommendation for second reading contained in the report by Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL) on the Council position at first reading with a view to the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways as regards the conferral of delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures.
The committee recommended the European Parliament to approve the Council position at first reading without amendment.
The explanatory statement accompanying the recommendation recalled the Parliament’s priorities:
- extend the scope of the Regulation on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways to passenger transport in order to enhance the role of inland navigation within the transport sector and for it to be based on reliable statistics encompassing both goods and passenger transport;
- align the regulation with the provisions of the Treaty (Article 290 and 291) as regards delegated and implementing powers conferred to the Commission. However, Parliament limited and better defined the powers conferred on the Commission.
Parliament and Council agreed on considering the transport of passengers by inland waterways within the framework of the Regulation. They defined the first steps towards the integration of statistics on passenger transport data within the Regulation:
- the Commission, in cooperation with Member States, will develop a methodology to compile statistics on passenger transport by inland waterways;
- the Commission will launch voluntary pilot studies to test the feasibility of the new data collections;
- the Commission will submit the results of these studies to the Parliament and the Council and consider making a proposal to revise the regulation. Financing of those pilot projects should be supported by the EU budget.
Parliament and Council agreed to limit the powers of the Commission to adopt delegated acts. Delegated acts should be adopted only to adapt the regulation to changes in coding and nomenclature at international level and increase thresholds. The duration of the delegation has been limited to five years.