RAPORT privind propunerea de regulament al Parlamentului European şi al Consiliului de modificare a Regulamentului nr. 11 privind eliminarea discriminării în materie de tarife şi condiţii de transport, în aplicarea articolului 79 alineatul (3) din Tratatul de instituire a Comunităţii Economice Europene şi a Regulamentului (CE) nr. 852/2004 al Parlamentului European şi al Consiliului privind igiena produselor alimentare – Aspecte privind transportul

20.12.2007 - (COM(2007)0090 – C6‑0086/2007 – 2007/0037A(COD)) - ***I

Comisia pentru transport şi turism
Raportor: Paolo Costa

PROIECT DE REZOLUŢIE LEGISLATIVĂ A PARLAMENTULUI EUROPEAN

privind propunerea de regulament al Parlamentului European şi al Consiliului de modificare a Regulamentului nr. 11 privind eliminarea discriminării în materie de tarife şi condiţii de transport, în aplicarea articolului 79 alineatul (3) din Tratatul de instituire a Comunităţii Economice Europene şi a Regulamentului (CE) nr. 852/2004 al Parlamentului European şi al Consiliului privind igiena produselor alimentare – Aspecte privind transportul

(COM(2007)0090 – C6‑0086/2007 – 2007/0037A(COD))

(Procedura de codecizie: prima lectură)

Parlamentul European,

–   având în vedere propunerea Comisiei prezentată Parlamentului European şi Consiliului (COM(2007)0090),

–   având în vedere articolul 251 alineatul (2), articolul 75 alineatul (3) şi articolul 152 alineatul (4) litera (b) din Tratatul CE, în temeiul cărora propunerea a fost prezentată de către Comisie (C6-0086/2007),

–   având în vedere decizia Conferinţei preşedinţilor din 5 iulie 2007 de a autoriza Comisia pentru mediu, sănătate publică şi siguranţă alimentară şi Comisia pentru transport şi turism să întocmească câte un raport legislativ pe baza propunerii Comisiei COM(2007)0090,

–   având în vedere articolul 51 din Regulamentul său de procedură,

–   având în vedere raportul Comisiei pentru transport şi turism (A6-0513/2007),

1.  aprobă propunerea Comisiei astfel cum a fost modificată;

2.  solicită Comisiei să îl sesizeze din nou, în cazul în care intenţionează să modifice în mod substanţial această propunere sau să o înlocuiască cu un alt text;

3.  încredinţează Preşedintelui sarcina de a transmite Consiliului şi Comisiei poziţia Parlamentului.

Text propus de Comisie	Amendamentele Parlamentului
Amendamentul 1 TITLU
Propunere de	Propunere de
REGULAMENT AL PARLAMENTULUI EUROPEAN ŞI AL CONSILIULUI	REGULAMENT AL PARLAMENTULUI EUROPEAN ŞI AL CONSILIULUI
de modificare a Regulamentului nr. 11 privind eliminarea discriminării în materie de tarife şi condiţii de transport, în aplicarea articolului 79 alineatul (3) din Tratatul de instituire a Comunităţii Economice Europene şi a Regulamentului (CE) nr. 852/2004 al Parlamentului European şi al Consiliului privind igiena produselor alimentare.	de modificare a Regulamentului nr. 11 privind eliminarea discriminării în materie de tarife şi condiţii de transport, în aplicarea articolului 79 alineatul (3) din Tratatul de instituire a Comunităţii Economice Europene.
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090. Since the Commission's proposal contains provisions for two distinctive legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport (EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), the deletion concerns references and aspects related to the hygiene of foodstuffs.
Amendamentul 2 REFERIREA 1
având în vedere Tratatul de instituire a Comunităţii Europene şi, în special, articolul 75 alineatul (3), articolul 95 şi articolul 152 alineatul (4) litera (b),	având în vedere Tratatul de instituire a Comunităţii Europene şi, în special, articolul 75 alineatul (3),
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090. Since the Commission's proposal contains provisions for two distinctive legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport (EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), the deletion concerns references and aspects related to the hygiene of foodstuffs.
Amendamentul 3 REFERIREA 5
hotărând în conformitate cu procedura prevăzută la articolul 251 din tratat,	eliminat
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the CoP of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal. As the legal base of the Transport proposal on Regulation 11 is Article 75(3), the amendment aims at keeping the letter of this Article, i.e. "The Council shall, acting by qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the Economic and Social Committee, lay dawn rules for implementing the provisions of paragraph 1". This will enable the separation of the two distinct legislative acts.
Amendamentul 4 CONSIDERENTUL 3
(3) Articolul 5 alineatul (1) din Regulamentul (CE) nr. 852/2004 prevede ca toţi agenţii economici din sectorul alimentar să iniţieze, să pună în aplicare şi să menţină o procedură bazată pe principiile analizei riscurilor şi ale punctelor de control decisiv (HACCP).	eliminat
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090. Since the Commission's proposal contains provisions for two distinctive legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport (EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), the deletion concerns references and aspects related to the hygiene of foodstuff.
Amendamentul 5 CONSIDERENTUL 4
(4) Experienţa a demonstrat că la anumite societăţi din sectorul alimentar, igiena alimentară poate fi asigurată printr-o aplicare corectă a cerinţelor privind igiena alimentară prevăzute de Regulamentul (CE) nr. 852/2004, fără a recurge la sistemul HACCP. Societăţile în cauză sunt, în special, întreprinderi mici care îşi vând produsele direct consumatorului final, cum ar fi magazinele de panificaţie, măcelăriile, magazinele de legume şi fructe, tarabele din piaţă, restaurantele şi barurile, cu statut de microîntreprindere în sensul Recomandării Comisiei 2003/361/CE din 6 mai 2003 privind definiţia microîntreprinderilor, a întreprinderilor mici şi mijlocii[1].	eliminat
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090. Since the Commission's proposal contains provisions for two distinctive legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport (EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), the deletion concerns references and aspects related to the hygiene of foodstuffs.
Amendamentul 6 CONSIDERENTUL 5
(5) Prin urmare, este necesar să se stabilească o scutire pentru aceste societăţi de la dispoziţiile articolului 5 alineatul (1) din Regulamentul (CE) nr. 852/2004, cu condiţia ca acestea să respecte toate celelalte cerinţe ale regulamentului respectiv.	eliminat
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090. Since the Commission's proposal contains provisions for two distinctive legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport (EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), the deletion concerns references and aspects related to the hygiene of foodstuffs.
Amendamentul 7 CONSIDERENTUL 6
(6) Întrucât modificarea Regulamentului (CE) nr. 852/2004 şi a Regulamentului nr. 11 au obiectivul comun de a reduce poverile administrative ale societăţilor, fără a afecta obiectivul fundamental al acestor regulamente, este necesară o îmbinare a acestor modificări într-un singur regulament	eliminat
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090. Since the Commission's proposal contains provisions for two distinct legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), the deletion concerns references and aspects related to the hygiene of foodstuffs.
Amendamentul 8 ARTICOLUL 2 Articolul 5 alineatul (3) [Regulamentul (CE) Nr. 852/2004]
Articolul 2	eliminat
Articolul 5 alineatul (3) din Regulamentul (CE) nr. 852/2004 se completează cu următoarea teză:
„Fără a aduce atingere celorlalte cerinţe ale prezentului regulament, alineatul (1) nu se aplică în cazul societăţilor care au statut de microîntreprindere în sensul Recomandării Comisiei 2003/361/CE din 6 mai 2003 şi a căror activitate constă, în special, în vânzarea directă de produse alimentare către consumatorii finali."
Justificare
This amendment follows from the Decision of the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 to authorise the ENVI and TRAN committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090. Since the Commission's proposal contains provisions for two distinctive legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport (EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), the deletion concerns references and aspects related to the hygiene of foodstuffs.

• [1]  JO L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36.

EXPUNERE DE MOTIVE

Background and procedural comments

On 6 March the Commission submitted to the Parliament a proposal which includes provisions amending two existing, but distinct, community legislative acts, i.e. one regarding the Regulation No 11 dated from 1960 concerning the abolition of discrimination in transport rates and conditions, in implementation of Article 79(3) of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and the other regarding the Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and the Council on the hygiene of foodstuffs[1].

On the basis of the requests initiated by the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) for splitting the proposal into two parts, the Conference of Presidents of 5 July 2007 decided "to authorise the ENVI and TRAN Committees to draw up one legislative report each on the basis of Commission proposal COM(2007)0090".

Content of the proposal: Transport aspects

Under the Strategic Review of Better regulation in the EU[2] and the Action Programme for Reducing Administrative Burdens in the EU[3] the Commission identified the transport part of the proposal in a series of items - the so-called "fast track action" - where significant benefits could be generated in short term through relatively minor changes of the existing legislation. The action programme aims at the reduction of the administrative burdens on business by 25% by 2012 as part of the shared responsibility and the common endeavour by the Member States and the European institutions for the "Growth and Jobs" strategy. The European Council endorsed this approach (May 2007) and called the Council and the European Parliament to give special priority to the items of fast track action, with a view to their adoption as soon as possible in 2007.

Regulation 11 concerning the abolition of discrimination in transport rates and conditions requires from transporters of goods by rail, road or inland waterway within the Community to provide information on tariffs, agreements, price deals and transport conditions on a transport document that they need to carry with them when transporting the goods. All discriminations by carriers which take the form of charging different rates and imposing different conditions for carrying the same goods over the same transport links on grounds of the country of origin or of destination of the goods in question are prohibited (Art. 4).

It is evident that certain obsolete or outdated provisions of the Regulation 11 dated from 1960 and amended by the regulation (EEC) No 3626/84 should be amended.

In particular, the proposal deletes obsolete elements of the documentation required for each consignment of goods related to the "route to be taken" or the "distance to be travelled" and the "frontier crossing points" when transporting goods across national borders within the EU (Art. 6 (1), fifth and sixth indent). These two requirements out of the several stipulated in Article 6 shall be no longer indispensable to attain the objectives of the Regulation and in a sector which is characterised by high degree of liberalisation.

Moreover, the obligation for the carrier to retain a copy on his premises, showing in addition "the full and final transport charges and any other charges and any rebates or other factors affecting the transport rates and conditions" (third sentence of Art. 6 (2)), is no longer necessary as nowadays, this information is available in the carriers' accounting systems.

Further, it is proposed to remove the outdated obligation for Member States' governments and transport undertakings to notify to Commission information on transport tariffs, rates and conditions before 1 July 1961 (Art. 5).

Finally, along with those deletions on requirements leading to unnecessary burden on businesses, the Commission proposes an explicit reference for the use of "the consignment notes or to any other transport document" giving all the details required by the regulation in order to avoid for carriers to keep separate forms and duplicate their work. These consignments notes are already required under the UN Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (Geneva, 1956) to which Member Sates are contracting parties[4]. The proposed modification increases the legal certainty for transport undertakings regarding the substitution document concerning information required.

According to the Commission's impact assessment, the measure will affect more than 300.000 businesses (100 rail operators, 7.000 inland waterway operators and 300.000 road freight carriers). The expected benefit of the cut of the administrative burden is estimated to be approximately EUR 160 million annually.

The Rapporteur's proposals

As the Commission's proposal contains provisions on two legislative acts with different nature, i.e. Transport (EEC Regulation No 11) and Hygiene of foodstuffs (EC Regulation No 852/2004), your Rapporteur proposes to produce a separated act dealing with the Regulation 11. Based on the decision of the Conference of Presidents, the Committee on Transport and Tourism should seek the division of the two legislative proposals in order proceed to the adoption of the proposal on Regulation 11 without amending the regulation on hygiene of foodstuffs.

On the issue of the legal basis of this proposal, it should be noted that while the transport aspects are proposed under Article 75(3), where no consultation of the Parliament is foreseen by the EC Treaty[5], in contrast, the hygiene aspects are proposed under Articles 95 and 152(4), for which the codecision procedure is provided. Although questions can be raised with regard to the appropriateness of this joint legislative proposal, the objective of the "fast track action" should not be jeopardised, as such, by the delicate steps that have to be followed.

Since the proposal was communicated under the codecision procedure to the Committee, it enables the adoption of the transport act, i.e. Regulation 11, by deleting the relevant provisions related to the hygiene of foodstuffs. The only condition that has to be respected is not to amend the provisions proposed by the Commission on the Regulation 11. This will provide the desirable objective which is the swift adoption of the Regulation 11, and hence the economic benefits of this proposal in a very quick short term period.

• [1]  COM (2007)0090 final
• [2]  COM (2006)0689 final
• [3]  COM (2007)0023 final
• [4]  All 27 EU Member States except Malta
• [5]  In fact, Article 75(3) stipulates that "The Council shall, acting by qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the Economic and Social Committee, lay dawn rules for implementing the provisions of paragraph 1". The European ESC adopted its opinion at the meeting of 30 May 2007 (JO C 175, 27.07.2007, p. 37).

PROCEDURÃ

Titlu	Eliminarea discriminărilor în materie de preţuri şi condiţii de transport
Referinţe	COM(2007)0090 - C6-0086/2007 - 2007/0037A(COD)
Data prezentării la PE	6.3.2007
Comisia competentă în fond        Data anunţului în plen	TRAN 29.3.2007
Comisia (comisiile) sesizată(e) pentru avizare        Data anunţului în plen	ENVI 29.3.2007
Avize care nu au fost emise        Data deciziei	ENVI 3.5.2007
Raportor(i)        Data numirii	Paolo Costa 26.3.2007
Examinare în comisie	20.11.2007
Data adoptării	18.12.2007
Rezultatul votului final	+: –: 0:	45 0 0
Membri titulari prezenţi la votul final	Gabriele Albertini, Inés Ayala Sender, Etelka Barsi-Pataky, Jean-Louis Bourlanges, Paolo Costa, Michael Cramer, Luis de Grandes Pascual, Arūnas Degutis, Christine De Veyrac, Petr Duchoň, Saïd El Khadraoui, Emanuel Jardim Fernandes, Francesco Ferrari, Mathieu Grosch, Georg Jarzembowski, Stanisław Jałowiecki, Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Sepp Kusstatscher, Jörg Leichtfried, Bogusław Liberadzki, Eva Lichtenberger, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Robert Navarro, Seán Ó Neachtain, Willi Piecyk, Paweł Bartłomiej Piskorski, Luís Queiró, Reinhard Rack, Brian Simpson, Renate Sommer, Dirk Sterckx, Ulrich Stockmann, Silvia-Adriana Ţicău, Yannick Vaugrenard, Armando Veneto, Roberts Zīle
Membri supleanţi prezenţi la votul final	Zsolt László Becsey, Luigi Cocilovo, Markus Ferber, Pedro Guerreiro, Lily Jacobs, Vladimír Remek, Leopold Józef Rutowicz, Corien Wortmann-Kool