IP/08/520

Brussels, 03 April 2008

Commission takes Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal to the Court of Justice for infringing EU social rules on road transport

Today, the European Commission lodged proceedings against Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal for failure to comply with European social legislation relating to road transport activities.

Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal have not communicated their national measures transposing Commission Directive^[1] on the implementation of European social legislation relating to road transport activities. Member States had to adopt the necessary legislation before 1 April 2007.

Proper transposition of the Directive provides that the number of checks on compliance with social rules on driving time and rest periods progressively increases from currently 1% of the total days worked to 2% in 2008 and to 3% in 2010. Moreover, it requires a minimum of six joint checks between enforcement authorities of different Member States each year, a better coordination and cooperation between enforcement, joint training programmes, standard equipment levels and the establishment of electronic information exchange systems.

^[1] Directive 2006/22/EC of 15 March 2006 determines the minimum level of enforcement required to ensure compliance with the rules set out in Regulation (EC) 561/2006 (driving times and rest periods) and Regulation (EEC) 3821/85 (tachograph).