DG GROW's assessment of the Mobility Package and prospects for SMEs in the road transport sector
15.9.2017
Question for written answer P-005761-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Kosma Złotowski (ECR) , Tomasz Piotr Poręba (ECR)
On 31 May 2017, the Commission published a package of legislative proposals whose aim was to fundamentally change a large number of the provisions regulating the road transport sector in the EU.
The proposed changes — and in particular those concerning issues such as the posting of workers, rules on drivers’ rest breaks, cabotage or exemptions for vehicles with a GVW of less than 3.5 tonnes — pose an enormous challenge to SMEs operating on this market, a large number of which are based in Poland.
Given that DG GROW is responsible for EU policy on the internal market and SMEs, I should like to put the following questions:
- 1.To what extent was DG GROW involved in preparing the abovementioned legislative proposals? During the preparatory phase, did the DG voice concerns on the negative impact of the Mobility Package on SMEs?
- 2.Has Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible, among other things, for the internal market and entrepreneurship, expressed her reservations during internal Commission discussions regarding specific measures proposed in the Mobility Package that harm SMEs? If so, what observations were taken into account in the published draft?
- 3.In DG GROW’s assessment, to what extent will the proposed measures aggravate conditions for competition between companies from various Member States operating in the road transport sector of the common market?