Newsletters

The European Commission published on 7 October a draft implementing Regulation updating the list of serious infringements which may lead to the loss of good repute by a road transport operator. The draft act results from the publication of the Mobility Package I Regulations which add new infringements that could lead to loss of good repute, introduce an additional criterion when defining the degree of seriousness of infringements and their frequency of occurrence.

The maritime supply chain disruptions will not normalise before the end of 2022, according to the latest Container Forecaster report published by Drewry on 5 October. The supply chain crisis has worsened during Q2 2021, with cases of COVID-19 temporarily closing some Chinese terminals, and extreme weather events occurring in some regions. Drewry expects that fleet growth will continue to lag behind demand growth this and next year, but the discrepancy will be eased from 2023 onwards when the orders for newbuilt vessels will come to the market.

On 6 October, EU environment ministers held a first formal debate on the Fit for 55 Package, with a particular focus on initiatives that fall under the remit of the Environment Council, including the revision of the EU ETS (inclusion of maritime transport and separate ETS system for road transport and buildings sector) and the establishment of the EU Social Climate Fund. The preliminary exchange of views suggests discussions will be tense and compromises will be difficult to achieve among Member States.

What can make Rail Freight more attractive? This question was raised to rail freight customers at the event on rail freight, organised by the European Commission, in cooperation with the Luxembourg Ministry of Mobility and CER on the 5th of October in Bettembourg, Luxembourg. Achieving Europe’s modal shift ambitions will only be realistic if the right framework conditions are put in place. Multimodality can play a key role in this. CLECAT has put to paper its views on the upcoming review of the Combined Transport Directive. Europe can’t afford to miss another opportunity to get it right with this new proposal.

On 1 October, the Council's Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) agreed on a negotiating mandate on a proposal for a Data Governance Act (DGA), which is part of a wider policy, aimed to give the EU a competitive edge in the increasingly data-driven economy. The Act would seek to set up mechanisms to facilitate the reuse of certain categories of protected public-sector data, increase trust in data intermediation services and promote data altruism across the EU.

On 7 October, the European Secure Parking Organisation (ESPORG) is organising an online workshop from 10.00-13.00h CET to provide information about safe and secure parking, the EU Standard for Safe and Secure Truck Parking Areas (SSTPA), as well as detailed information and advice to interested applicants about the recently launched funding call for SSTPAs under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport.

On 1 October, the ninth edition of the European Cybersecurity Month kicked off, which will run for the entire month of October under the motto ‘Think Before U Click'. The European Cybersecurity Month is an annual awareness campaign organised by the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and over 300 partners in the EU Member States.

On 29 September, the EU extended the COVID-19 vaccines export transparency and authorisation mechanism until 31 December. The purpose of the vaccines export transparency and authorisation mechanism is to secure deliveries of vaccines to Europeans in line with companies’ contractual obligations.

On 30 September, CLECAT attended the 59th plenary meeting of the Trade Contact Group (TCG), organised by the European Commission’s DG TAXUD. The meeting was dedicated to hearing from TCG members about their key messages for consideration in the context of the ongoing evaluation of the implementation of the UCC and possible future revision.