On 30 October 2020, the Commission decided to send letters of formal notice to Italy, France and Lithuania for failing to comply or to correctly transpose some European rules.

More particularly, the letter to Italy concerns the failure to abide by the rules of Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 on tachographs in road transport. While according to the Regulation, indeed, the data exchanged during communication with the tachograph may only be stored by the control authorities for the duration of a roadside check for them to be deleted at the latest three hours after their communication, the Italian legislation allows to use the information stored by the tachograph to monitor speeding crimes. 

The letters to France and Lithuania, instead, concern the failure to fully implement Directive (EU) 2015/719 on the maximum weights and dimensions of certain road vehicles. The legislation at hand, which should have been transposed by Member States by 7 May 2017, introduces derogations for heavy goods vehicles powered by alternative fuels and for those involved in intermodal transport operations. Despite their use may generate extra weight, indeed, alternative powertrains reduce pollution, and therefore, provided that it does not result in the load capacity of the vehicle being increased, that extra weight should not be counted as part of the effective load of the vehicle, since this would penalise the road transport sector in economic terms.

The three Member States will now have two months to address the Commission’s concerns, after which the latter may decide to send a reasoned opinion.

Marco Stillo