Briskens welcomes proposed repeal of EU's return of truck requirement

RIGA - Transport Minister Kaspars Briskens (Progressives) welcomes a proposal to repeal the EU's Mobility Package regulation that requires trucks to return to their country of origin at least once in eight weeks, the minister told LETA. 

The current regulation artificially increases the number of empty journeys and contravenes the EU's climate policy, Briskens said, commenting the proposal made by Giovanni Pitruzzella,

Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).  

A truly free market of goods and services is the EU's fundamental value. "We must not allow small and medium-sized enterprises being unnecessarily burdened by red tape," the transport minister stressed. 

According to the Transport Ministry, the eight-week return of the truck requirement must be repealed as it contradicts the principle of proportionality. Furthermore, the adopted compromise solution sets a negative precedent and can contain provision that are aimed not at the industry's development but at restricting the operations of some regions' trucking companies. 

"In our view, the rule contravenes the European Commission's strategy to cut transport emissions by 90 percent by 2020," the ministry noted. 

The ministry also indicates that in order to take a stand for the common market values and achieve the green objectives, Latvia in 2021 decided to join a lawsuit to the ECJ over the Mobility Package regulation, which sets out conditions for operating in the international road haulage market, including the requirement for trucks to return to their countries of origin at least once in every eight weeks.