EU TRILOGUE ON TRUCK WEIGHTS AND DIMENSIONS EXPECTED EARLY MAY
A trilogue meeting on the revision of the Weights and Dimensions Directive is expected to take place in early May, with the Cypriot Presidency of the Council currently aiming to schedule the negotiations for 07 May 2026.
The Council and the European Parliament formally launched interinstitutional negotiations in December 2025, following the adoption of the Member States’ general approach in November. Since then, discussions have continued at technical level, with two technical trilogues thus far, and are now expected to return to the political stage. Negotiations are expected to revolve around several politicised issues, including the limits on cross-border operations of 44-tonne trucks and the use of EMS vehicles.
In the Council General Approach, cross-border operations with EMS vehicles are allowed between Member States that permit them at national level, with the lowest common denominator on maximum weights applying. While the Council has removed reporting obligations for Member States, such as on the impact of EMS on infrastructure and modal shift, the European Parliament takes a more conditional approach.
The European Parliament supports the use of EMS but links it to the fulfilment of several criteria by Member States. These include assessing the impact of EMS on road safety, infrastructure, modal cooperation and environmental performance; demonstrating the lack of suitable, more sustainable alternatives in other transport modes; ensuring the safety of vulnerable road users; and setting appropriate qualification requirements for drivers. In addition, the Parliament foresees a transition towards the use of zero-emission EMS vehicle combinations from 1 January 2040.
CLECAT supports the cross-border use of EMS combinations between consenting Member States. However, restricting such operations to specific technologies or introducing overly burdensome conditions risks fragmenting the internal market and undermining logistics efficiency.
CLECAT also supports allowing 44-tonne trucks, including conventional vehicles, to operate cross-border between Member States that already authorise such weights on their national territory. Allowing 44-tonne operations between Member States that already permit such weights domestically would reduce the number of trips, lower costs, and improve load efficiency without imposing obligations on countries that do not wish to apply higher limits nationally.