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Directive 96/53/EC is under discussion once again thanks to the European Green Deal

Directive 96/53/EC is under discussion once again thanks to the European Green Deal

Making Europe climate neutral by 2050 is one of the main priorities of the European Commission’s “European Green Deal”. In light of this, the Commission is focusing its objectives in three areas: (1) Making all modes of transport more sustainable, (2) making sustainable alternatives widely available as part of a multimodal system and (3) providing adequate incentives to encourage the transition.

Revision of Directive 96/53/EC is one of the commitments undertaken by the Commission to improve the single market's potential and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport. As a reminder, this directive sets the standards for the maximum weights and dimensions of heavy-duty vehicles in national and international transport.

A necessary revision of the Directive

Amended in 2015 (Directive (EU) 2015/719) to improve the energy efficiency of road transport, the Directive was amended again by Regulation (EU) 2019/1242, which introduced a series of measures designed to encourage zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles. Despite this, the current rules seem clearly lacking when it comes to new European governance and many problems remain. The fragmentation of the market for using heavy-duty vehicles, the coexistence of different requirements and authorisation systems, the heterogeneity of technical specifications for combined transport, the insufficient adoption of zero-emission vehicles, and the inconsistency of cross-board transport rules for heavy-duty vehicles that leads to legal uncertainty and discriminatory checks, are all examples of the many flaws in the current legislation.

Major objectives and revision procedure

The revision of the Directive should therefore help to “green” road transport by accelerating the adoption of zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles and applying innovative systems and technologies that improve energy efficiency. It should also promote flexibility in the use of different modes of freight transport through the adaptation of technical standards to meet the needs of combined transport. The revision must also ensure the free movement of goods under conditions of fair competition by removing regulatory and trade barriers, and by simplifying the rules for cross-border traffic through the use of digital tools and communication technology that is already in use.

On 7 December 2021, the Commission published a proposal for an amended directive, which was open for feedback from industry professionals and stakeholders until 2 February 2022. All contributions received will be summarised by the European Commission and presented to the European Parliament and Council Conseil so as to inform the legislative debate, at least until the first quarter of 2023. The evidence gathered as part of the impact assessment (available via this link) will be needed to turn objectives properly into concrete options both for road transport and for combined rail-road transport.

guillaume.murawa(at)cit-rail.org

*picture: www.katche.eu/european-green-deal