On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom submitted the notification of its intention to withdraw from the Union pursuant to Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (‘TEU’). The Treaties will cease to apply to the United Kingdom from the date of entry into force of a withdrawal agreement or failing that, two years after that notification, that is to say from 30 March 2019, unless the European Council, in agreement with the United Kingdom, unanimously decides to extend that period.
(2)
The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union would, in the relationship with the remaining 27 Member States and in the absence of any special provisions, end all rights and obligations ensuing from Union law in respect of market access, as established by Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009 (3) and Regulation (EC) No 1073/2009 (4) of the European Parliament and the Council.
(3)
The multilateral quota system of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) is the only other available legal framework that could provide a basis for the carriage of goods by road between the Union and the United Kingdom after the withdrawal date. However, due to the limited number of permits currently available under the ECMT system and its limited scope as regards the covered types of road transport operations, the system is currently inadequate to fully address the road freight transport needs between the Union and the United Kingdom.
(4)
In order to prevent ensuing serious disruptions, including in respect of public order, it is therefore necessary to establish a temporary set of measures enabling road haulage operators and coach and bus service operators licensed in the United Kingdom to carry goods and passengers by road between the territory of the latter and of the remaining 27 Member States, or from the territory of the United Kingdom to the territory of the United Kingdom transiting one or more Member States. In order to ensure a proper equilibrium between the United Kingdom and the remaining Member States, the rights thus conferred should be conditional upon the conferral of equivalent rights and be subject to certain conditions ensuring fair competition.
(5)
Gibraltar is not included in the territorial scope of this Regulation and any reference to the United Kingdom therein does not include Gibraltar.
(6)
The right to carry out transport operations within the territory of a Member State or between Member States is a fundamental achievement of the internal market and should, following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union and in the absence of any specific provision to the contrary, no longer be available to United Kingdom road haulage operators which are not established in the Union. However, temporary phasing out measures should be envisaged to permit United Kingdom road haulage operators to perform a limited number of additional operations within the territory of the Union in the context of operations between the United Kingdom and the Union. In the immediate aftermath of a withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union without a withdrawal agreement, such measures should help to prevent disruptions to traffic flows, which are to be expected from additional controls of vehicles and their cargo, and ensuing threats to public order. They should help in alleviating, more particularly, the pressure on the border points, which are few in number and which are where such disruptions are most likely, as the vehicles do not need to return immediately. They should be proportionate, should not replicate the same level of rights as those enjoyed by Union road haulage operators under the rules of the internal market and should be progressively phased out in accordance with this Regulation.
(7)
In the absence of any special provisions, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union would also lead to serious disruptions, including in respect of public order, in the context of road passenger services. The Agreement on the international occasional carriage of passengers by coach and bus (5) (‘Interbus Agreement’) is the only available legal framework that provides a basis for the carriage of passengers by bus and coach between the Union and the United Kingdom after the withdrawal date. The United Kingdom will become a Contracting Party in its own right to the Interbus Agreement from 1 April 2019. However, the Interbus Agreement covers only occasional services and is, therefore, inadequate to address the disruptions ensuing from the withdrawal, given the high number of persons that would continue to seek to travel between the Union and the United Kingdom. A Protocol to the Interbus Agreement covering regular passenger transport services was negotiated between its Contracting Parties, but it is not expected to enter into force in time to offer a viable alternative solution to the current situation for the period immediately after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom. Therefore, for regular and special regular services of passenger transport by bus and coach, the current instruments do not address the needs of road transport of passengers between the Union and the United Kingdom. To mitigate an ensuing major disruption that could put public order at risk, it is therefore appropriate to allow United Kingdom carriers to carry passengers from the United Kingdom to the Union and vice versa provided the United Kingdom grants at least equivalent rights to EU carriers. Those rights granted under this Regulation should be limited to a short period of time, so as to allow the Protocol to the Interbus Agreement on regular services to enter into force and the United Kingdom to accede to that Protocol.
Cross-border coach and bus services between Ireland and Northern Ireland are of particular importance for communities living in the border regions, in view of ensuring basic connectivity between communities inter alia as part of the Common Travel Area. The picking up and setting down of passengers in regions on either side of the border supports the viability of those services. Therefore, the picking up and setting down of passengers by United Kingdom coach and bus service operators should continue to be authorised in the border regions of Ireland in the course of international passenger transport services by coach and bus between Ireland and Northern Ireland. These rights should be granted for a limited period of time (until 30 September 2019) to enable alternatives to be put in place.
(8)
In order to reflect their temporary character, while not setting a precedent, the set of measures provided for in this Regulation should be limited to a short period of time. In respect of road haulage operations, the limitation in time is made in view of possible arrangements for basic connectivity to be made in the ECMT system, and without prejudice to both the possible negotiation and entry into force of a future agreement covering the carriage of goods by road between the Union and the United Kingdom and future Union rules on transport. As far as passenger transport by bus and coach is concerned, the limitation in time is made to allow the Protocol to the Interbus Agreement on regular services to enter into force and the United Kingdom to accede to that protocol, and without prejudice to a possible future agreement on the matter between the Union and the United Kingdom.
(9)
In accordance with the principle of proportionality set out in Article 5 TEU, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(10)
This Regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency and apply from the day following that on which the Treaties cease to apply to the United Kingdom unless a withdrawal agreement concluded with the United Kingdom has entered into force by that date. This Regulation should in any event cease to apply on 31 December 2019. The Union will therefore cease to exercise the competence exercised through this Regulation after that date. Without prejudice to other Union measures, and subject to compliance with those measures, that competence will, in accordance with Article 2(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’), again be exercised by the Member States thereafter. The respective competences of the Union and of the Member States with respect to the conclusion of international agreements in the area of road transport are to be determined in accordance with the Treaties and taking into account relevant Union legislation.
(11)
Where necessary to address market needs, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission, to restore the equivalence of rights granted by the Union to United Kingdom road haulage operators, as well as United Kingdom coach and bus service operators, with those granted by the United Kingdom to Union road haulage operators, and to Union coach and bus service operators, including where the rights granted by the United Kingdom are granted on the basis of the Member State of origin or otherwise are not equally available to all Union operators, and to remedy occurrences of unfair competition to the detriment of Union road haulage operators and of Union coach and bus service operators.
(12)
The delegated acts should comply with the principle of proportionality, and their terms should therefore be commensurate to the problems raised through the failure to grant equivalent rights or through unfair conditions of competition. Suspension of the application of this Regulation should be envisaged by the Commission only in the most severe cases, where no equivalent rights are granted to Union road haulage operators or to Union coach and bus service operators by the United Kingdom or where the rights granted are minimal, or where the conditions of competition for United Kingdom road haulage operators or United Kingdom coach and bus service operators differ so much from those of Union operators that the provision of the services in question by Union operators is, for them, not economically viable.
(13)
When adopting the delegated acts, it is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (6). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts. It should be ensured that any such delegated act does not unduly affect the proper functioning of the internal market.
(14)
To ensure that rights granted by the United Kingdom to Union road haulage operators and Union coach and bus service operators equivalent to those granted by this Regulation to United Kingdom road haulage operators and United Kingdom coach and bus service operators are equally available to all Union operators, the scope of Regulations (EC) No 1072/2009 and (EC) No 1073/2009 should be temporarily extended. Those Regulations already cover the part of a journey between a Member State and a third country on the territory of any Member State crossed in transit. It is, however, necessary to ensure, in such case, that Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009 also apply to the part of the journey on the territory of the Member State of loading or unloading, and that Regulation (EC) No 1073/2009 apply to the part of the journey on the territory of the Member State of picking up or setting down passengers. Such an extension aims at ensuring that Union operators can perform cross-trade operations to or from the United Kingdom, as well as additional stops in their operation of passenger transport,
