Lithuanian hauliers deeply regret the outcome of the European Parliament’s vote on the Mobility Package 1. It is outrageous that instead of defending the common European interest in every policy field, MEPs chose to treat the road transport sector and EU’s peripheral Member States as a European under-class, in isolation from EU’s key strategic ambitions – to re-build the Single Market, to implement a future-oriented European Green Deal and to recover from unprecedented pandemics for the sake of the next generations.
Setting a dangerous precedent for the rule-making in other EU policy fields, the Mobility Package 1 will mark the sad legacy of this European Parliament, going into history books as the largest assault on the European values.
Endangers Single Market and European Economic Recovery
Recovery of the European economy can only happen with the recovery of the Single Market. However, in the light of the unprecedented pandemic, economic and social crisis, Members of the Parliament, instead of focusing on truly European solutions, are greenlighting protectionism. Aimed at limiting access of the peripheral Member States to the Single Market, this will also hinder economic development that benefits all.
“The result of the vote is a clear evidence of how profoundly divisive the Mobility Package is – between East and West, old and new, centre and periphery, industrial and service-oriented Member States. We are extremely concerned that having this gulf deepened, the EU’s peripheral hauliers will miss out on long term benefits of the Single Market”, points out Romas Austinskas, the President of the Lithuanian hauliers association LINAVA.
“It is unacceptable for these restrictions, or any other, to create a Union of haves and haves-not, with an underclass in its periphery”, added R. Austinskas.
Lithuanian road transport sector wants to continue to be an enabler of sustainable trade and European economic recovery at this crucial phase. However, in combination with the economic aftermath of COVID-19, the adoption of the Mobility Package 1 as it was voted today, is a serious threat to driving this high ambition.
Discredits the European Green Deal
The European Parliament has not evaluated major risks of the Mobility Package 1 to the increase of CO2 emissions and treated it in isolation from the EU-wide decarbonisation efforts.
As a result, the obligation for the vehicle to return to the country of establishment was approved despite evident contradictions to ambitions of the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement goals. As proven by numerous studies, it will result in additional empty runs, congestion, higher fuel consumption, pollution and risky rise in CO2 emissions – without any social benefits.
“Due to this obligation 7 peripheral EU Member States – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria – alone will emit additional 3,2 million tons of CO2 per year. The European businesses and transport system will face multiple inefficiencies, possible price hikes and chronic lack of transport capacity, especially in Europe’s major industrial and trade hubs. Selectively ignoring these effects will seriously undermine our joined efforts to move towards a sustainable, clean and smart mobility and to be a part of the solution in the process of this historic transformation”, underlines Agnė Margevičiūtė, the Chairwoman of the board of the International Transport and Logistics Alliance (Lithuania).
European solution
European road transport needs future-proof rules that make it fit for a modern economy. It is equally important that decision-making process is based on careful impact assessments, consistently upholding the legal principles and the guiding political ambition. Today, in these exceptional times, this has been as essential as never before.
In this light, Lithuanian hauliers are strongly convinced that a truly European solution to the Mobility Package would have allowed businesses and governments to focus on the next crucial steps – swift recovery and joined sustainable transformation that would be approached through its key drivers in the fields of environment and climate, social agenda, single market and smooth connectivity, digitalisation and innovation programme, safety and security.
Unfortunately, now Europe’s centre and periphery will have to cope with long term harmful effects of the wrong policy response that today’s Mobility Package represents. We hope that the ongoing efforts, including the European Commission’s assessment of impacts on environment, climate and Single Market will provide solid grounds for the revision of the Mobility Package in the nearest future.