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The EMS Forum welcomes clarity on the cross-border use of EMS and strongly supports the European Commission in its respect of the original intentions of the legislator. The EMS Forum is responding to a letter by European Parliament President, Martin Schulz, to the President of the European Commission, and supporting the current legal interpretation of EU Directive 96/53 on the weights and dimensions of commercial vehicles, which now permits cross-border trials of EMS within the EU.

CLECAT has welcomed the European Commission's clear statement on the EU transit procedure which offers a wide range of options to its users and leaves them the choice of how a guarantee is provided to customs. The Commission has no intention to respond to a call from the road industry to turn the clock back by allowing TIR carnets for EU internal transport.

  In the interests of a closer communication with members, other industry partners and policy makers over the development of policies on the range of issues covered by its members, CLECAT launched its new website today: www.clecat.org  

CLECAT welcomes the recent clarification of the European Commission on the cross-border journeys of the European Modular System (EMS). In a recent letter from Vice-President Siim Kallas to the Chairman of the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament certain points of the Directive 96/53/EC on weights and dimensions in road transport were clarified. The Commission has confirmed that the cross-border movements of EMS combinations between consenting Member States which allow their use on their national territory is allowed and in line with the spirit of subsidiarity.

Transport for London (TfL) will hold European Freight advice workshops for London 2012 in Paris, Lille and Holland, with the intention of ensuring freight and servicing companies are aware of the possibility of impacts to their operations and to help them understand how to plan for this to maintain as far as possible ‘business as usual’.

CLECAT regrets that the EU has not taken the views of the European business and industry into account in a time of economic difficulty and has not responded to the joint industry call to postpone the strict sulphur limits to allow investments in mass production of low sulphur fuel and development of cost-efficient abatement technologies.

The Association of European Freight Forwarders and Logistics, CLECAT, has alerted the European Commission on concerns expressed by its members on the recent announcement by Trenitalia implying a limitation of the free movement of dangerous goods vehicles in Italy. Trenitalia has introduced, with immediate effect, a restriction for ECM (Entity in Charge of Maintenance) in Italy: Railcars that contain hazardous goods now have to be managed by an ECM with a self-declaration of conformity rather than certification.

The Association of European Freight Forwarders and Logistics, CLECAT, is calling on the European Commission to reject a call from Nordic road freight operators to introduce a temporary six months opt-out of EU’s cabotage rules. The road associations from Sweden, Denmark and Finland have called on their Transport Ministers to seek support from the European Commission to change the cross-border movement of trucks from the Baltics and Eastern Europe into Scandinavia.

CLECAT, representing freight forwarders and logistic companies, the shippers (ESC) and the independent rail freight companies (ERFA) have written an open letter to Members of the European Parliament regarding their views, expectations and concerns over the European Commission’s proposal for a directive establishing a single European railway area (Recast) COM(2010)475.

Debating the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) instrument at an event hosted by MEP Filip De Backer last week, Mark Huybrechts, President of the European Freight Forwarders Organisation, CLECAT, said that this instrument published by the European Commission in October last year, represents a big leap forward in the transport policy field for many years. Together with the TEN-T guidelines they establish the framework for the building of one trans-European network, complementing national infrastructure policies and adding genuine European value to them.