PURPOSE: to establish common rules on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2018/974 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways.

CONTENT: this Regulation establishes common rules for the production of European statistics concerning inland waterways transport. It codifies and replaces Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

The codification is carried out for the sake of legal clarity, since the Regulation has been substantially amended several times.

The new codified Regulation replaces the various acts incorporated over time while fully preserving their content.

The Regulation shall provide the Commission with statistics on freight transport by inland waterways for the monitoring and development of the common transport policy and the transport elements of regional policies and trans-European networks.

In particular, it provides that Member States in which the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways as national, international or transit transport exceeds 1 000 000 tonnes shall supply the data in accordance with the tables in Annexes I to IV to the Regulation.

This Regulation shall not apply to: (i) the carriage of goods by vessels of less than 50 deadweight tonnes; (ii) vessels used principally for the carriage of passengers; (iii) vessels used solely for non-commercial purposes by port administrations and public authorities; (iv) vessels used solely for bunkering or storage; (v) vessels not used for the carriage of goods such as fishery vessels.

The effect of this Regulation is limited to those Member States where inland waterway modes of transport exists.

The Commission shall ensure that pilot studies are carried out on the availability of statistical data related to passenger transport by inland waterways, including cross-border transport services. The Union will have to contribute to the cost of carrying out these pilot studies. By 8 December 2020 at the latest, the Commission shall submit a report on the results of these pilot studies. Depending on the results, the Commission shall, if necessary, submit a legislative proposal to amend this Regulation.

The Commission may adopt delegated acts to amend the Regulation on increasing the threshold of 1 million tonnes of statistical coverage of inland waterway transport, to adapt the definitions and to adapt the Annexes in order to take account of economic and technical changes affecting definitions adopted at international level.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 5.8.2018.

The European Parliament adopted by 602 votes to 22, with 7 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways (codification).

The European Parliament adopted its position at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure, taking over the Commission prop osal.

According to the Consultative Working Party of the Legal Services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the proposal in question is limited to a straightforward codification of the existing texts, without any change in their substance.

The proposal establishes common rules for the production of European statistics concerning inland waterways transport. It shall enable the Commission to have statistics concerning the transport of goods by inland waterways in order to monitor and develop the common transport policy, as well as the transport elements of policies on the regions and on trans-European networks.

In particular, it provides that Member States in which the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways - whether national, international or transit - exceeds 1 million tonnes shall provide data in accordance with the tables in Annexes I to IV to the Regulation. The effect of this Regulation is limited to those Member States where this mode of transport exists.

The Commission may adopt delegated acts to amend the Regulation with a view to increasing the threshold above 1 million tonnes of statistical coverage of inland waterway transport, to adapt definitions or provide for new ones, as well as to adapt the Annexes to this Regulation to reflect changes in coding and nomenclature at international level or in the relevant Union legislative acts.

PURPOSE: to codify Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 has been substantially amended several times. On 1 April 1987, the Commission decided to instruct its staff that all acts should be codified after no more than ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement. The Conclusions of the Presidency of the Edinburgh European Council (December 1992) confirmed this, stressing the importance of codification.

The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed, by an interinstitutional agreement of 20 December 1994, that an accelerated procedure may be used for the fast-track adoption of codification instruments.

CONTENT: in the interests of clarity and rationality, the purpose of this proposal is to undertake a codification of Regulation (EC) No 1365/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways and repealing Council Directive 80/1119/EEC.

The proposed new Regulation shall supersede the various acts incorporated in it ; it proposal fully preserves the content of the acts being codified and hence does no more than bring them together with only such formal amendments as are required by the codification exercise itself.

The main elements of the proposed codified text are as follows:

Subject matter : the proposal establishes common rules for the production of European statistics concerning inland waterways transport. It shall enable the Commission to have statistics concerning the transport of goods by inland waterways in order to monitor and develop the common transport policy, as well as the transport elements of policies on the regions and on trans-European networks.

Scope : Member States in which the total volume of goods transported annually by inland waterways as national, international or transit transport exceeds 1 000 000 tonnes shall supply the data in accordance with the tables in Annexes I to IV to the Regulation.

The effect of this Regulation is limited to those Member States where inland waterway transport exists.

Pilot studies : the Commission shall ensure that pilot studies are carried out on the availability of statistical data on passenger transport by inland waterways, including cross-border transport services. The Union shall contribute to the cost of implementing these pilot studies.

Implementation : the Commission may adopt:

implementing acts on data transmission procedures and developing and publishing criteria and methodological requirements to ensure the quality of the data produced; delegated acts to amend the Regulation on increasing the threshold of 1 million tonnes of statistical coverage of inland waterway transport, to adapt the definitions and to adapt the Annexes in order to take account of economic and technical changes affecting definitions adopted at international level.