Activities of Tania GONZÁLEZ PEÑAS related to 2016/0149(COD)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on cross-border parcel delivery services PDF (973 KB) DOC (166 KB)
Amendments (34)
Amendment 81 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) The tariffs applicable to low volume senders of cross-border parcels and other postal items, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals, are in some cases still relatively high. Users still report quality of service issues when sending, receiving or returning cross-border parcels and, very specially, severe problems related to consumer protection and enterprise liability in the occurrence of loss or damage of the cross-border parcel. This has a direct negative impact on users seeking cross- border parcel delivery services, especially in the context of e-commerce. Further improvements in interoperability, efficiency and environmental footprint reduction are equally needed.
Amendment 95 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 4
Recital 4
(4) In order to improve the affordability of cross-border parcel delivery services, especially for users in remote or sparsely populated areas, it is necessary to improve the transparency of public lists of tariffs for a limited set of cross-border parcel delivery services offered by universal service providers,tariffs which are mostly used by small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals. Transparency of public lists is also necessary to address the issue of high tariffs of cross-border delivery services and to reduce, where applicable, unjustified tariff differences between national and cross-border parcel delivery services.
Amendment 102 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
Amendment 109 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 6 a (new)
Recital 6 a (new)
(6 a) The parcel delivery sector shows high rates of atypical, precarious and low- paid forms of employment all along the EU. The monitoring of the working force and working conditions in the sector is therefore of key importance to ensure both quality and transparency of the parcel services. Further supply of reliable data by all operators present in the market is in need of improvement.
Amendment 111 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 7
Recital 7
(7) An estimated 80 % of addressed postal items generated by e-commerce today weigh less than two kilograms, and are often processed in the letter-post mail stream. There is little information on the average weight of parcels delivered by other means and operators. It is important that those postal items are subject to this Regulation, notably to the requirements on transparency of tariffs and the assessment of their affordabilityunreasonable high prices.
Amendment 116 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 8
Recital 8
(8) Therefore, it is important to provide a clear definition of parcels and parcel delivery services and to specify which postal items are covered by thatose definitions. This concerns in particular postal items, other than items of correspondence, which because of their weight are commonly used for sending goods and merchandise. This Regulation should therefore cover, in line with consistent practice, postal itemsarcels with or without commercial value weighing up to 31.5 kg, as heavier items cannot be handled by a single average individual without mechanical aids. In line with current practice and Directive 97/67/EC, each step in the postal chain, i.e. clearance, sorting and delivery should be considered parcel delivery services. Transport alone that is not undertaken in conjunction with one of those steps should fall outside the scope of parcel delivery services as it can in this case be assumed that this activity is part of the transport sector, transport and distribution should be considered parcel delivery services.
Amendment 122 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 9
Recital 9
(9) Terminal rates are an important part of the total cost of delivery services. They are based on multilateral and bilateral agreements between universaparcel service providers and ensure that the destination universal service provider is remunerated for the costs of the service provided to the originating universal service providerone. Terminal rates should be defined in such a way that it includes both terminal dues, as defined in point 15 of Article 2 of Directive 97/67/EC that are applied for letter mail items and inward land rates that are applied to parcels. In a similar way, trans-national enterprises delivering in several countries often use internal transfer costs instead.
Amendment 144 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 16
Recital 16
(16) Significant differences between domestic and cross-border tariffs for parcel delivery services should be justified by objective criteria, such as additional costs for transport and a reasonable profit margin. Universal service providers providing parcel delivery services should be required to provide such justification without delay.
Amendment 149 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 17
Recital 17
(17) In order to ensure transparency across the Union, the analysis of a national regulatory authority should be submitted to the national regulatory authorities of the other Member States and to the Commission. Confidentiality is to be ensured by the national regulatory authorities and the Commission. The Commission may also request the European Regulators Group for Postal Services to provide a Union-wide analysis on the basis of the national contributions.
Amendment 154 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) UnParcel deliversaly service providers providing parcel delivery services may conclude multilateral and bilateral agreements on terminal rates and may set up other programmes to facilitate the interconnectivity of their delivery networks. For reasons of non- discrimination, competing parcel delivery service providers shall be granted equal access to the terminal rates applicable between parIt is important that any practices under multilateral agreements. It may be justified that terminal rates payable by third-party parcel delivery service providers, in some cases, exceed those payable by universal service providers that are parties to such agreements. This may be the case where the parties to a multilateral agreement on terminal rates are able to demonstrate that the cost of setting up, operating and administering the agreement, the extra cost incurred by accepting and handling items from non-designated parcel delivery service providers and other such costs are not covered by the terminal rates payable by the third-party service provider in the originating Member Statein this respect that might be in breach of principles of Union competition law and of the provisions of Directive 97/67/EC are properly investigated and addressed by Member States, national regulatory authorities and by the European Commission in a timely and effective manner.
Amendment 157 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
Recital 19
Amendment 159 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 21
Recital 21
(21) As markets for parcel delivery services are changing fast, the Commission should re-assess the efficiency and effectiveness of this Regulation and submit a regular report to the European Parliament and the Council. That report should be accompanied, where appropriate, by legislative proposals for review to the European Parliament and the Council. That report should be produced following consultation with all appropriate stakeholders and users, also including the European Social Dialogue committee for the postal sector.
Amendment 170 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) the transparency of tariffs and terminal rates for certainof cross- border parcel delivery services and the assessment of the affordability of certain cross-border tariffsose tariffs which are unreasonable high;
Amendment 177 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 1 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) transparent and non-discriminatory access to certain cross-border parcel delivery services and/or infrastructure.
Amendment 178 #
This Regulation is without prejudice to the full application by all parcel delivery providers of all legal and contractual provisions concerning employment, working and social security conditions and the exercise of fundamental rights, including the right to negotiate, conclude and enforce collective bargaining agreements and to take industrial action.
Amendment 180 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point -a (new)
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point -a (new)
(-a) “parcel” means any item other than an item of correspondence delivered by any delivery service provider with a weight not exceeding 31,5 kg; (This amendment applies throughout the text. Adopting it will necessitate corresponding changes throughout.)
Amendment 187 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point a
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point a
(a) “parcel delivery services” means services involving the clearance, sorting, transport or distribution of postal items other than items of correspondence; transport alone shall not be considered a parcel delivery service; delivery of such items exceeding 31,5 kg shall not be considered a parcel delivery servicearcels;
Amendment 200 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point c
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point c
(c) “terminal rates” means payments from the originating unparcel deliversaly service provider to the destination unparcel deliversaly service provider or to intermediaries where applicable for the costs of cross- border parcel delivery services in the destination Member State., being either terminal dues, inward land rates or transfer prices;
Amendment 210 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) the provider’s general conditions of sale, including a detailed description of the complaints procedure and clear information of the liability arrangements with subcontractors and other enterprises involved in the cross-border parcel delivery services in the event of loss or damage of the parcel.
Amendment 218 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – point a
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – point a
(a) the annual turnover in parcel delivery services for the previous calendar year in the Member State or Member States in which the provider is established, broken down in parcel delivery services relating to national, incoming and outgoing cross- border postal items;
Amendment 220 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – point b
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – point b
(b) the number of persons working for theboth directly and indirectly for the parcel delivery services provider andwho are involved in the provision of parcel delivery services in the Member State in which the provider is established in the previous calendar year . This shall include breakdowns by reference to employment status and salary, including whether full- time, part-time, temporary, on a non- guaranteed hours basis or self-employed and shall also cover persons working for subcontractors or companies to which the parcel delivery services provider outsources clearance, sorting, transport or distribution of parcels
Amendment 226 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – point c
Article 3 – paragraph 3 – point c
(c) the number of postal items other than items of correspondence and not exceeding 31,5 kg handled in thearcels handled over the previous calendar year in the Member State or Member States in which the service provider is established in the previous calendar year, broken down into nationaldomestic, incoming and outgoing cross-border postal itemarcels.
Amendment 230 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 5
Article 3 – paragraph 5
5. The national regulatory authorities may impose information requirements additional to those referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 23 where they are necessary to ensure conformity with this Regulation provided that those requirements are necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory.
Amendment 244 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – title
Article 4 – title
Transparency of tariffs and terminal rates
Amendment 254 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1
Article 4 – paragraph 1
1. UniversaAll service providers providing parcel delivery services shall provide the national regulatory authority of the Member State in which they are established with the public list of tariffs applicable on 1 January of each calendar year for the delivery of postal itemarcels falling within the categories listed in the Annex. That information shall be provided by 31 January of each calendar year at the latest.
Amendment 265 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 3
Article 4 – paragraph 3
3. UniversaAll service providers providing parcel delivery services shall provide the national regulatory authority with the terminal rates applicable on 1 January of each calendar year to postal items originating from other Member Statcross-border parcels, being either terminal dues, inward land rates or transfer prices. That information shall be provided by 31 January of each calendar year at the latest.
Amendment 283 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. The national regulatory authority shall assess the affordabilittransparency of cross- border tariffs included in the public lists of tariffs obtained in accordance with Article 4(1) within 3 months of receipt of that information. In thatThis assessment, i shall cover all service provider present in the market in a non-discriminatory way. In particular the following elements shall be taken into account:
Amendment 314 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 2
Article 5 – paragraph 2
2. Where the national regulatory authority concludes that cross-border tariffs referred to in paragraph 1 are not affordableunreasonably high, it shall request further necessary information and/or justification in relation to the level of those tariffs from the unparcel deliversaly service provider.
Amendment 322 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 3
Article 5 – paragraph 3
3. The unparcel deliversaly service provider shall provide the national regulatory authority with the information and/or justification referred to in paragraph 2 within 15 working days of receipt of the request.
Amendment 332 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 4
Article 5 – paragraph 4
4. The national regulatory authority shall submit its assessment, including any information and/or justification provided in accordance with paragraph 3, to the Commission, the national regulatory authorities of the other Member States and the national authorities within the Member State of the submitting national regulatory authority entrusted with the implementation of competition law. A non-confidential version of that assessment shall also be provided to the Commission. That information shall be provided by 31 March of each calendar year at the latest.
Amendment 342 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6
Article 6
Amendment 372 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a
(a) whether the affordabilittransparency of cross- border parcel delivery servicetariffs has improved, including for users located in remote or sparsely populated areas;
Amendment 374 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a a (new)
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point a a (new)
(aa) the extent to which the level consumer protection is appropriate, specially with regard to the easy and clear identification of the liable enterprise in the event of loss or damage of the cross- border parcel and to the full accessibility of the appropriate complaints procedure;
Amendment 376 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 8 – paragraph 2 – point b