Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2014)721 - Authorisation of Austria, Belgium and Poland to ratify, or to accede to, the Budapest Convention on the Contract for the Carriage of Goods by Inland Waterways ( CMNI) - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2014)721 - Authorisation of Austria, Belgium and Poland to ratify, or to accede to, the Budapest Convention on the Contract for the ... |
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| source | COM(2014)721  |
| date | 08-12-2014 |
The Commission proposes that the Council authorizes Austria and Poland to ratify, or to accede to, the Budapest Convention on the Contract for the Carriage of Goods by Inland Waterways (CMNI) (the 'Budapest Convention'). The Budapest Convention has been adopted by the Diplomatic Conference organised jointly by the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine and the Danube Commission in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
The Budapest Convention, entered into force on 1 April 2005, has proven to be a great success and contributes to the internal market in the field of transport. It is intended to harmonize contractual and inland navigational standards among European countries. Eleven of the Member States of the Union, namely Belgium i, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia are already Contracting Parties to this Convention. Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom have indicated to the Commission that they do not have inland waterways covered by the scope of the Budapest Convention.
Austria and Poland have expressed on several occasions their interest in becoming Parties to the Convention; indeed their participation will foster the broad implementation of this legal instrument with benefits for citizens and businesses.
Contents
The issue of the accession of Austria and Poland to the Budapest Convention has been discussed several times in the meetings of the Working Party on Civil Law Matters (General Questions).
Even those Member States which do not intend to become party to the Convention would support the Commission's initiative aimed at allowing Austria and Poland to ratify or to accede to the Budapest Convention.
The present proposal was also strongly promoted by the European Associations representing the inland navigation industry (European Barge Union and IVR-International Association for the representation of the mutual interests of the inland shipping and the insurance and for keeping the register of inland vessels in Europe-).
Article 29 of the Budapest Convention contains provisions on the choice of law by the parties to a contract of carriage falling under the Convention. Those provisions affect the rules laid down in Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) i. Therefore, the Budapest Convention is an agreement falling partly under exclusive European Union competence. Member States cannot ratify or accede to it without a Union authorization (Article 2 i TFEU).
The Commission observes that Belgium has ratified the Budapest Convention on 5 August 2008, after the adoption and the entry into force of the Rome I Regulation on 24 July 2008. It is therefore necessary to address the Union authorization also to Belgium, in order to rectify the current unlawful situation.
The Commission also notes that only some Member States have shown interest in being party to the Convention. Other Member States do not consider themselves to be concerned as they consider not having inland waterways which would be covered by the scope of the Budapest Convention. Moreover, the Convention does not provide for the possibility for the Union to become a party and in any event the Commission does not intend at this stage to propose to approve that the Union be bound by the Convention in any other way.
There is no uniform definition of inland waterways in the EU legislation concerning inland navigation. The scope of application of some directives or regulations with regard to waterways is regulated differently by each legal act. For example, Directive 2006/87/EC on technical requirements for inland waterway vessels i contains a list of waterways to which the directive applies (Annex I). This list is based on notifications from Member States which declare where the directive should be applicable on their territories. On the other hand, Directive 96/50/EC on the harmonization of the conditions for obtaining national boatmasters' certificates for the carriage of goods and passengers by inland waterway in the Community i has a different system for determining which waterways are covered by the scope of the directive. In principle the directive applies to all waterways in the EU with the exemption of the Rhine and other water ways mentioned in Annex II to Directive 91/672/EEC.
The Union may exceptionally authorise one or several Member States to be party to the Convention. In this case the exclusive competence is limited to a single provision, and the authorisation does not constitute an obstacle to the implementation of the Union’s external policy on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters. The request of Austria and Poland is in particular justified since other Member States became a party to the Convention before Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 was adopted. This authorization should be without prejudice to the exclusive competence of the Union, and tries to meet a very specific situation.
The Council Decision shall be therefore addressed only to Austria, Belgium and Poland.
Under Article 30 of the Budapest Convention, Contracting States have the possibility to make declarations on the scope of application of the Convention. The Member States concerned may, when acceding to the Convention, make the appropriate declarations allowed under its provisions which they deem necessary. The text of such declarations should be attached to the Council Decision. […]