EU Court annuls costly haulage rules contested by Malta and other member states
Malta will be spared a costly obligation to return haulage trucks departing from the island to the European mainland every eight weeks, after a review by the European Court of Justice of the EU Mobility Package on petition of eight member states
Malta will be spared a costly obligation to return haulage trucks departing from the island to the European mainland every eight weeks, after a review by the European Court of Justice of the EU Mobility Package on petition of eight member states.
Foreign minister Ian Borg, a former transport minister, welcomed the annulment of what he termed a “controversial, market-distorting” obligation that required transport vehicles to return to their home base every eight weeks. “Malta will keep calling for a fair and competitive haulage market, enhancing connectivity across all 27 EU Member States.”
I welcome today’s annulment of the controversial, market-distorting Mobility Package obligation that required transport vehicles to return to their home base every eight weeks, by the ECJ’s landmark ruling this morning.
— Ian Borg (@DeputyPMIanBorg) October 4, 2024
Malta will keep calling for a fair and competitive haulage…
Nationalist MEP Peter Agius, who had called out the unfairness of the measure’s proportionality for islands and small states, said that the ECJ judgement should offer some reprieve to Malta with corresponding price reductions on land transport.
Agius also said that Green Deal provisions had not taken into account the disproportionate burden imposes on island economies like Malta. “While the ECJ judgement generally upholds the other elements of the mobility package, including the cabotage limitations and worker rest periods, the annulment of the truck return was ruled as unjustified.”
Agius said the Commission should have clear data on how such proposals are affecting islands, before moving to regulate.
“The judgement should have wider political repercussions however, strengthening the hand of islands and peripheral regions to fend off and amend similar moves on air and sea transport, including the unfair and equally-disproportionate Emissions Trade Scheme which is now favouring North African ports to the prejudice of Malta Freeport, and air transport rules imposing equally disproportionate burdens on airports at the EU’s periphery like Malta.”
The Court said the Mobility Package sought to strike a new balance between the various interests involved, namely, in particular, the interest of drivers in better social conditions of work and the interest of employers in carrying out their transport activities under fair commercial conditions.
“The EU legislature was entitled to consider that, in view of that necessary rebalancing, increased social protection for drivers could result in an increase in the costs borne by certain transport undertakings. The rules adopted for that purpose are proportionate to the objective pursued,” the ECJ said.
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