Malta wins EU court challenge against trucking rules

04 October 2024

Malta and six other EU member states have won a court ruling against a law that would have forced trucks and heavy vehicles to return to their country of origin every eight weeks.

The victory ends a four-year dispute against the ‘return of vehicles’ rule in the EU’s mobility package.

Malta, Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Hungary argued that it unfairly burdened local companies with excessive costs.

The member states, many of them on Europe’s periphery, argued that the rules were protectionist and undermined their ability to compete in the free market.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Friday that the European Parliament and Council had “not established that they had sufficient information at their disposal when that measure was adopted to enable them to assess its proportionality”.

However, the court threw out all the other claims made by the complainants about the mobility package.

The ECJ’s judgement follows a similar opinion put forward by its Advocate General last November, which argued that the rule had not been sufficiently justified by the European Parliament and Council, agreeing that it negatively impacts emissions and fuel consumption.

The government and opposition welcomed the judgment.

Why was this rule problematic?

In practice, the rules obliged heavy vehicles to return to their country of establishment every eight weeks, in a move believed to be designed to prevent haulage companies from registering in other countries to benefit from lower taxes.

But, as Malta’s business lobby argued, while this was a relatively simple matter of crossing a land border for haulage companies across mainland Europe, it made things far costlier for Maltese haulage companies, who had to ferry their vehicles back to Malta.

This process added “disproportionate additional costs to the road transport operators and consequently to business clients and end consumers” and placed Malta at a disadvantage, the Malta Chamber said last year.

When the rules were first voted upon in early 2020, local haulage operators Attrans had estimated that the move would cost the company as much €1m to implement, pushing the price up for consumers.

Cross-party welcome for decision

Both the government and opposition expressed their satisfaction at the ECJ’s ruling in separate statements published on Friday morning.

The transport ministry said that the rule had been causing “logistical complications” and negatively impacting emissions and costs by forcing operators to undertake several unnecessary journeys to comply with the rules.

Transport minister Chris Bonett said that Malta was “at the forefront of the fight against this injustice”. 

“We understood that this industry needs its operators to have the best possible conditions and to minimise its environmental impact,” he said.

Meanwhile, PN MEP Peter Agius said the ruling could have “wider political repercussions” in addressing similar injustices in maritime and air travel, such as the “unfair and the equally disproportionate ETS Maritime scheme which is now favouring north African ports to the prejudice of Malta Freeport”.

Earlier on Friday morning, Agius and shadow transport minister Mark Anthony Sammut met with the Association of Trailer and Truck Operators (ATTO), arguing that “it is essential that these operators are not burdened with additional costs on their operations, as these costs will ultimately lead to price increases for consumers”.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg said Malta will keep calling for a fair and competitive haulage market, enhancing connectivity across all member states.

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EU court annuls trucking rule heavily opposed by Malta - Newsbook

Malta wins EU court challenge against trucking rules (timesofmalta.com)