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Parliamentary questions
2 February 2010
E-0200/10
WRITTEN QUESTION by Michael Cramer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

 Subject: Cross-border use of mega trucks (‘gigaliners’)
 Answer(s) 

Trials of so-called mega trucks are being carried out in certain individual EU Member States. I am informed that, as part of this process, mega trucks are also crossing the borders between Denmark and Germany and between Sweden and Denmark. In March 2009, commenting on the cross-border use of extra-long, and in some cases extra-heavy, goods vehicles, Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani said that ‘[…] the analysis of the legislation in force by our legal experts excludes the possibility of reading Directive 96/53/EC(1) as allowing their cross-border use’. (See http://www.nomegatrucks.eu/deu/news/interview-eu-verkehrskommissar-tajani-riesen-lkw/.)

I should therefore like to ask the Commission:

1. Did it receive reports about the abovementioned cross-border use of mega trucks from the Member States concerned or through other channels?
2. Does the cross-border use of extra-long, extra-heavy goods vehicles constitute a breach of existing EC law? If so, what steps does the Commission intend to take to prevent it? If not, why not?
3. How does the Commission intend to ensure that there are no further instances of the cross-border use of mega trucks in the EU?

In recent months DG TREN has conducted a series of workshops and commissioned a number of studies with a view to the possible amendment of Directive 96/53/EC to permit the use of mega trucks in the EU.

4. How much have these activities (studies and workshops) on the part of DG TREN cost European taxpayers to date?

5. Were these activities also supported, financially or in terms of personnel, by any third parties? If so, who were they and how extensive was their support?

(1)OJ L 235, 17.9.1996, p. 59.

Original language of question: DEOJ C 285 E, 21/09/2012
Last updated: 9 February 2010Legal notice