Oost-Europese vervoerders willen af van ‘protectionistische maatregelen’

Vier brancheverenigingen van goederenvervoerders in Oost-Europa hebben in een gezamenlijke verklaring stelling genomen tegen de ‘protectionistische maatregelen’ die West-Europese landen hanteren in strijd tegen de concurrentie uit Oost-Europese landen.

Zoals eerder door TTM.nl vermeld willen vervoerders in Polen, Tsjechië, Hongarije en Slowakije af van de maatregelen tegen en beschuldigingen van social dumping en oneerlijke concurrentie. De vier federaties ZMPD, CESMAD Bohemia, CESMAD Slovakia en MKFE, vertegenwoordigen naar eigen zeggen ongeveer 10.000 bedrijven met een vloot van 172.000 trucks en opleggers.

De door deze organisaties vertegenwoordigde transportcapaciteit is  volgens hen zelf onontbeerlijk om de supply chain van de Europese Unie te handhaven. “Oost-Europese transportbedrijven zijn vrijwel uitsluitend verantwoordelijk voor de levering van grondstoffen naar productiefaciliteiten in Oost-Europa en de aflevering van hun afgewerkte producten op de markt”, aldus de branche-organisaties.

De verenigde vervoerders nemen afstand van de standpunt over de beschuldigingen van “sociale dumping- en oneerlijke concurrentie” die West-Europese brancheverenigingen in hun alliantie hebben geuit, ondanks het feit dat de Oost-Europeanen (zeggen) volledig in overeenstemming met Europese en nationale wetgeving te zijn.

De Oost-Europese vervoerders zeggen dat de implementatie van protectionistische maatregelen die door verschillende West-Europese landen zijn aangenomen om de concurrentie door Oost-Europese vervoerders te beperken, zou leiden tot een aanzienlijke prijsstijging in de lidstaten van de Europese Gemeenschap, waardoor honderdenduizenden banen in het oosten van de gemeenschap op de toch komen te staan.. De vervoerders verzoeken daarom met klem een moratorium op reeds aangenomen nationale wetgeving en vragen tevens om het aannemen van gemeenschappelijke wetgeving die in vervoerswetgeving kan worden opgenomen, waardoor aanvaardbare voorwaarden voor alle vervoerders in de Europese Unie worden gecreëerd.

Het document is afgelopen vrijdag ondertekend  door Jan Buczek, voorzitter van de ZMPD van Polen, György Wáberer, voorzitter van de vereniging van Hongaarse wegvervoerders, Josef Melzer, vice-president van CESMAD BOHEMIA van Tsjechië en Pavol Hudák, vice-voorzitter van CSEMAD Slovakia.

Lees hieronder de complete verklaring van de Visegrad landen (in het Engels)

‘We, the leaders of the largest associations of road transport operators of the Visegrad Group Countries (V4) express our disagreement with the national measures that are derogatory to the fundamental values of the European Union namely free movement of goods, services that mean a burden on our industry. We are following with concern the efforts of some countries to change the common market and to implement protectionist measures. We are afraid that these measures and the possible countermeasures taken by single EU countries will lead to more and more fragmented internal market.

On behalf of the most prestigious associations of our countries, owning and using a total number of

172 500 vehicles of 9800 member companies, we see that the expanding practice of applying the posting of workers directives in the road transport sector aims to protect the markets of the old member states by reducing the competitiveness and artificially increasing the expenditures of the later accessed member states. The V4 have lost their markets in several sectors after the EU accession; however, they managed to increase their share in international road transport in a fair competition. As we see it, by unilaterally modifying the regulations the member states of the EU are trying to deprive transport companies of the V4 (and others), who play a significant role in the European transport market, of these results mentioned above.

We are ready to take part in a constructive dialogue to find common solutions with the players of the European road transport market, however such a dialogue cannot be conducted under pressure of fines or threats from our partners. The European Commission is going to propose legislative solutions for a harmonised road transport sector specific application of the posting soon. The coming EU decision making process will open wide room for the needed dialogue, which hopefully will  provide a meaningful, clear and simple, non-discriminatory regulatory framework which would secure the effective functioning of the road transport market. However, it can last for years while the problems we are facing today will remain unsolved. We have no time to wait, our operators are required to comply with the different national provisions in the present.

We repeatedly call on the European Commission to finalize its decision making process in order to get a legal assessment of the situation created by the protectionist countries. We also demand that EC, as a protector of the community law, to bring immediately the issues resulted by the application of the posting provisions that lead to legal disputes and the infringement procedures related to Western European minimum wages to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

During normal international road transport activity, each national version of the application of posting creates huge financial and administrative burdens.

In Germany, France, and Austria, transport tasks are hindered by such a high level of unnecessary administrative burden, that they have become a technical obstacle to the principle of free movement of goods and services. All these burdens are unacceptable for us.

Therefore we strongly request the German, French and Austrian authorities to introduce an immediate moratorium on the application of their minimum wage/posting regulations regarding international road transport operations until a new EU-wide legislation on the social and internal market challenges in the international road transport comes into effect in the framework of the EC’s ’road package’.’