Newsletters

On 29 April, the Council of the EU formally authorised the Commission to negotiate the prolongation of the road freight transport agreement with Ukraine. The agreement, first signed in June 2022 and extended until June 2024 grants bilateral transport rights to Ukrainian and EU hauliers in each other’s territories.

The Commission initially proposed some changes to the agreement, including mandating the carrying of documents showing that a transport operator is duly authorised to perform international carriage or the introduction of safeguard clauses to accommodate the growing concerns of some neighbouring countries with regards to the liberalisation of the market between EU and Ukrainian hauliers. After several weeks of negotiations, Member States further amended the decision to explore the possibility to introduce digital solutions for the carrying of road freight documents, to improve the monitoring of the implementation of the agreement by establishing an ad hoc working party and develop a template to communicate to parties the identity of road freight operators not respecting the Agreement.

It was also agreed that the agreement can be prolonged for an initial period until 30 June 2025, while the Commission proposed an 18-month extension. Unless one of the parties has solid and clear evidence that there is a major disturbance of its road transport market as a whole or that the objectives of the Agreement are manifestly not met anymore, the agreement should be tacitly renewed with 6 months.

Source: Council of the EU