10 March 2023

TRAN COMMITTEE EXCHANGES WITH DG MOVE ON DELAY EFTI DA

On the 1st of March 2023, the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism met to have an exchange with DG MOVE on the delay in relation to the Delegated Acts of Regulation 2020/1056 on Electronic freight transport information (EFTI). The representative of the European Commission Maja Bakran Marcich, Deputy Director-General for Mobility and Transport, said that this Regulation is important in that it mandates authorities to accept transport information in a digital format. It allows for substituting paper documents with electronic information, adding that operators will be able to record cargo-related information via a QR code and share it with authorities, business partners, etc.  There are no new reporting obligations and harmonisation of existing requirements is ongoing.  

The Commission noted that the three DA’s were planned to be finalized in February, so the Commission is slightly behind schedule. Nevertheless, the Commission has made solid progress and will be able to adopt the Regulation by the summer. She said that delays are caused by the complexity of the task, given that there are around 100 national actors as well as various interdependencies with other processes. The first Delegated Act is now almost complete and is still awaiting feedback from five Member States that have very different national provisions, so common ground is yet to be found. The second Delegated Act is 80% complete, while the remaining 20% are subject to national provisions. Another challenge is the harmonization of datasets across different transport modes, as the Commission needs to harmonize legal acts and types of cargo transported. In this regard, the Commission has also worked with international partners to ensure full alignment with international standards. She reiterated that the first two Delegated Acts are almost complete and are expected to be finalized in the next two months. Meanwhile, the Implementing Act is 75% complete and the most complicated work is already behind. She expressed hope for a positive vote in the committee by early July. Finally, she emphasized the importance of communication and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders and ongoing work of the DTLF. For example, the Commission has worked with the EU's partners in the Western Balkans Transport Community and Ukraine has also been closely following its preparatory work. Concludingly, she noted there is a trade-off between time and quality. The Commission's preference of the latter explains the limited delay, so it is for a good purpose.

Andor Deli (NI, HU) said that this was an important file for TRAN Committee. Since this is a Regulation, it is directly applicable, which is why Delegated and Implementing Acts are warranted to facilitate its implementation. He said that this scrutiny event could have been avoided if the Committee had been given heads-up information on what is happening in the field. Instead, nobody knew about the reasons for the delay.

The representative of the European Commission said that this is indeed a Regulation which is directly applicable, adding that various national legislations dating back from 1961 had to be addressed. This shows the complexity of aligning all these standards. The Commission fully subscribes to the need to follow up, which is why it stands ready to brief this Committee whenever it sees fit. As to who is responsible, she referenced the complexities. More specifically, the fact that there are 5 Implementing and Delegated Acts with different dates for adoption while needing to create a viable puzzle out of all of them means this is not a simple task. Moreover, she argued there are no interests behind it, because it was simply a matter of time versus quality. She reminded MEPs that the deadline for full application is December 25. While this means they are slightly behind schedule, they are confident that everything will be on time.