The Mobility Package 1 Proposals: Unfit for the Single Market?

The Mobility Package 1 legislative proposal is up for a vote in the European Parliament. Initially, it was intended to improve the working conditions of the truck and small-van drivers in the EU. The European Commission also explicitly aimed at securing a smooth and non-discriminatory functioning of the Single Market.

Yet, the legislative procedure towards the latest version of the Mobility Package was hijacked by a protectionist agenda of vested interests in Western Europe. Pushed by the French government, some Western European governments and Members of the European Parliament’s Transport Committee designed tighter freight cabotage and return-to-home provisions to shield Western European transport markets against the competition from other EU Member States.

If ratified, the new EU-imposed law would discriminate against EU citizens that hold the wrong EU passport, mainly people from Central and Eastern European Member States. Maintaining EU-imposed measures on the freedom to provide transport services would increase tensions between countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe – economically, mentally and politically. Industry assessments also show that additional limitations on freight transport within the Single Market would result in higher CO2 emissions which would counteract the EU’s ambitious European Green Deal.