Council Regulation (EC) No 11/98 of 11 December 1997 amending Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 on common rules for the international carriage of passengers by coach and bus

Published date08 January 1998
Subject MatterTransport,Freedom of establishment
Official Gazette PublicationOfficial Journal of the European Communities, L 4, 08 January 1998
EUR-Lex - 31998R0011 - EN 31998R0011

Council Regulation (EC) No 11/98 of 11 December 1997 amending Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 on common rules for the international carriage of passengers by coach and bus

Official Journal L 004 , 08/01/1998 P. 0001 - 0009


COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 11/98 of 11 December 1997 amending Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 on common rules for the international carriage of passengers by coach and bus

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 75 (1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),

Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 189c of the Treaty (3),

(1) Whereas, in accordance with Article 75 (1) (a) of the Treaty, the establishment of a common transport policy entails, inter alia, laying down common rules applicable to the international carriage of passengers by road;

(2) Whereas such rules are contained in Council Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 of 16 March 1992 on common rules for the international carriage of passengers by coach and bus (4);

(3) Whereas Article 20 of Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 lays down that before 1 July 1995 the Commission shall report to the Council on the application of the Regulation and that the Council shall adopt before 1 January 1997, on a proposal from the Commission, rules on the simplification of procedures including - in the light of the report's conclusions - the abolition of authorizations;

(4) Whereas the definition of the various international coach and bus services should be simplified and improved; whereas those may be classed as regular services, special regular services and occasional services; whereas, therefore, the concept of shuttle service can be abolished;

(5) Whereas a system of market access exempt from authorization should be introduced for all occasional services, special regular services and all own-account transport operations;

(6) Whereas the system of authorization for regular services should be maintained, although a degree of flexibility should be introduced as regards the operating conditions for such services;

(7) Whereas in order to preserve intermodal competition, the railways should after a certain period no longer have priority in the context of the establishment of a coach or bus service;

(8) Whereas, in order to facilitate the inspection of transport operations, the international carriage of passengers by road for hire or reward should be subject to a Community licence drawn up in accordance with a harmonized model and issued under a swift and efficient administrative procedure;

(9) Whereas certain time limits involved in the procedure for the issue of authorizations should be made more flexible;

(10) Whereas Member States must take the necessary measures to implement this Regulation, in particular as regards effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties;

(11) Whereas provision should be made for the Commission to be assisted by an advisory committee when adopting measures implementing the Regulation as regards transport documents;

(12) Whereas an appropriate deadline should be laid down for introducing the Community licence;

(13) Whereas the application of this Regulation must be monitored on the basis of a report to be presented by the Commission,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EEC) No 684/92 is hereby amended as follows:

(1) In Article 2:

- the following subparagraph shall be added to point 1.1: 'The regular nature of the service shall not be affected by any adjustment to the service operating conditions.`,

- paragraph (d) of point 1.2 shall be deleted,

- in point 1.3 the words 'the use of additional vehicles and shorter intervals` shall be deleted,

- point 2 shall be deleted,

- point 3.1 shall be replaced by the following:

'3.1. Occasional services are services which do not meet the definition of regular services, including special regular services and which are characterized above all by the fact that they carry groups of passengers assembled on the initiative of the customer or the carrier himself.

The organization of parallel or temporary services comparable to existing regular services and serving the same public as the latter shall be subject to authorization in accordance with the procedure laid down in Section II.`,

- point 3.2 shall be deleted,

- in point 3.4, second subparagraph, the terms 'after consulting the Member States` shall be replaced by 'in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 16a`,

- point 4 shall be replaced by the following:

'4. Own-account transport operations

Own-account transport operations are those carried out for non-commercial and non-profit-making purposes by a natural or legal person, provided that:

- the transport activity is only an ancillary activity for that natural or legal person,

- the vehicles used are the property of that natural or legal person or have been obtained on deferred terms by them or have been the subject of a long-term leasing contract and are driven by a member of the staff of the natural or legal person or by the natural person himself.`.

(2) The first indent of Article 3 (1) shall be replaced by the following:

'- is authorized in the State of establishment to undertake carriage by means of regular services including special regular services or occasional services by coach and bus,`.

(3) The following Article shall be added:

'Article 3a

Community licence

1. In order to carry out international passenger transport operations by coach and bus, any carrier meeting the criteria laid down in Article 3 (1) must hold as Community licence issued by the competent authorities of the Member State of establishment in accordance with the model set out in the Annex.

2. The competent authorities of the Member State of establishment shall issue the holder with the original of the Community licence, which shall be kept by the carrier, and the number of certified true copies corresponding to the number of vehicles used for the international carriage of passengers at the disposal of the holder of the Community licence, either in full ownership, or in another form, notably by virtue of an instalment-purchase contract, a hire contract or a leasing contract.

3. The Community licence shall be established in the name of the carrier and shall be non-transferable. A certified true copy of the Community licence shall be carried on the vehicle and shall be presented at the request of any authorized inspecting officer.

4. The Community licence shall be issued for a period of five years which shall...

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