Bulgaria refers to Court of Justice of the EU over the Mobility Package

The Government approved the position of Bulgaria to take action before the Court of Justice of the European Union on the grounds of Art. 263 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in relation to the provisions of the Mobility I Package.

As a result of a lengthy negotiation process and despite opposition from Bulgaria and other Member States such as Romania, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus, on 31 July 2020, the legal acts adopted by the Council of the European Union in the field of international road transport of goods from the Mobility I Package were published in the Official Journal of the European Union:

· Regulation (EU) 2020/1054 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 amending Regulation (EC) № 561/2006 as regards minimum requirements for maximum daily and weekly driving times, minimum breaks and daily and weekly breaks, and Regulation (EU) № 165/2014 as regards location by tachographs;

· Regulation (EU) 2020/1055 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 amending Regulations (EC) № 1071/2009, (EC) № 1072/2009 and (EU) № 1024/2012 with a view to adapting them to developments in the road transport sector and

· Directive (EU) 2020/1057 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 laying down specific rules in relation to Directive 96/71 / EC and Directive 2014/67 / EU on the secondment of drivers in the road transport sector and amending Directive 2006/22 / EC as regards implementation requirements and Regulation (EU) (1024/2012.

The provisions in the new acts on the rules for the return of the driver, the return of the vehicle and secondment, the prohibition of weekly rest on board the vehicle and the rest period between two cabotage cycles clearly lead to extremely unfavourable consequences for Bulgarian companies operating internationally in the area of road transport of goods. The new texts are also unbalanced and to the detriment of Bulgarian transport operators, as well as in general for operators from peripheral Member States.

The adopted provisions lead to discrimination on the basis of geographical location, as well as restricting equal access to the Single Internal Market.

For some of the texts already adopted, no impact assessment has been presented at the level of the European Union, which the Bulgarian side has repeatedly pointed out in the course of the negotiation process.

In order to protect the interests of the companies engaged in international cargo transportation, Bulgaria will initiate actions for filing a written claim for filing a case before the Court of Justice of the European Union on the Mobility I Package.

In order to repeal part of the provisions of the mentioned legal acts, three separate appeals for annulment of the disputed texts will be filed in each separate problematic legislative act.