Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2023)591 - Amendment of Regulations (EC) No 80/2009, (EU) No 996/2010 and (EU) No 165/ 2014 as regards certain reporting requirements in the fields of road transport and aviation - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2023)591 - Amendment of Regulations (EC) No 80/2009, (EU) No 996/2010 and (EU) No 165/ 2014 as regards certain reporting requirements ... |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2023)591  |
| date | 17-10-2023 |
•Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
In its Communication on ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU: looking beyond 2030’ ( 1 ), the Commission has emphasised the importance of a regulatory system that ensures that objectives are reached at minimum costs. It has committed therefore to a fresh push to rationalise and simplify reporting requirements, with the ultimate aim to reduce such burdens by 25%, without undermining the related policy objectives.
Reporting requirements play a key role in ensuring correct enforcement and proper monitoring of legislation. Their costs are overall largely offset by the benefit they bring, in particular in monitoring and ensuring compliance with key policy measures. Reporting requirements can however also impose disproportionate burdens on stakeholders, particularly affecting SMEs and micro-companies, also given organisational and technological developments that call for original reporting requirements to be adjusted. Their cumulation over time can result in redundant, duplicating or obsolete obligations, inefficient frequency and timing, or inadequate methods of collection.
Streamlining reporting obligations and reducing administrative burdens is therefore a priority. In this context, the present proposal aims to simplify initiatives in the policy area of transport and affecting in particular transport by road and aviation.
The proposal will remove or streamline specific reporting obligations for public authorities as follows:
·The proposal removes the obligation under Regulation (EC) No 80/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council 2 for vendors of computerised reservation systems (CRSs) to submit reports detailing the ownership structure and governance models every four years and upon Commission’s request. This reporting obligation is meant to monitor the application of Article 10 of that Regulation, laying down specific rules for parent carriers, which are in particular meant to prevent these carriers from discriminating against competing CRSs, and prevent CRSs owned by these carriers from discriminating against the parent carriers of other CRSs. The 2020 evaluation of this Regulation 3 suggested that this provision appears to be redundant as airlines do not own CRSs anymore and the submission of the audited report is thus no longer justified. The Commission should nonetheless retain its existing power to request for such reports, in order to be able to effectively enforce Article 10, should an airline take a stake in a CRS in the future. The provision requiring vendors to inform the Commission of the identity of the auditor before confirming its appointment and allowing the Commission to ask for its replacement is also removed.
·The obligation under Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council 4 to publish a safety review at national level is deleted. This obligation is now redundant in view of the annual safety review published by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
·The obligation under Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council 5 for Member States to report to the Commission the list of workshops which may carry out installations, checks and repairs of tachographs and the obligation for the Commission to publish these lists are removed. These lists had the disadvantage of only providing a snapshot of the approved workshops. They are replaced by an obligation for Member States to publish this information on a publicly available website and to update it on a continuous basis and for the Commission to publish the list of these websites.
•Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
The proposal is part of a first package of measures to rationalise reporting requirements. This is a step in a continuous process looking comprehensively at existing reporting requirements, with a view to assess their continued relevance and to make them more efficient.
The rationalisation introduced by these measures will not affect the achievement of objectives in the policy area, as they do not interfere with the compliance of the Member States with the underlying obligations.
•Consistency with other Union policies
Under the Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT), the Commission ensures that its legislation is fit for purpose, targeted to the needs of stakeholders and minimizes burdens while achieving its objectives. These proposals are therefore part of the REFIT programme, reducing the complexity of reporting burdens arising from the EU legal environment.
While certain reporting requirements are essential, they need to be as efficient as possible, avoiding overlaps, removing unnecessary burdens and using as much as possible digital and interoperable solutions.
The current proposals rationalise reporting requirements thus making the achievement of the objectives of legislation more efficient and less burdensome for public authorities and for companies.
•Legal basis
The legal basis of Regulation (EC) No 80/2009 are Articles 71 and 80(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, now respectively Articles 91 and 100(2) of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU), that of Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 is Article 91 TFEU and that of Regulation (EU) No 996/2010 is Article 100(2) TFEU. Therefore, the legal basis of the proposed Regulation should be Articles 91 and 100(2) TFEU.
•Subsidiarity
The reporting requirements concerned are imposed by EU law. Their rationalisation is therefore best done at EU level to ensure legal certainty and consistency of reporting. This will ensure a level playing field for companies and public administrations across the EU, which will be benefiting from the rationalisation of reporting requirements arising from these proposals.
•Proportionality
The rationalisation of reporting requirements simplifies the legal framework by introducing minimum changes to existing requirements that do not affect the substance of the wider policy objective. The proposal is therefore limited to those changes that are necessary to ensure efficient reporting without changing any of the substantial elements of the legislation concerned.
•Choice of the instrument
The proposed Regulation amends three Regulations that have a compatible legal basis and does so only in relation to reporting requirements. These amendments are therefore suitable to be included in a single legislative proposal.
•Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
•Stakeholder consultations
•Collection and use of expertise
These proposals have been identified following a process of internal scrutiny of existing reporting obligations and based on the experience from implementation of the related legislation. Since this is a step in the process of continuous assessment of reporting requirements arising from EU legislation, the scrutiny of such burdens and of their impact on stakeholders will continue.
•Impact assessment
The proposal concerns limited and targeted changes of legislation in view of rationalising reporting requirements. They are based on experience from implementing legislation. The changes do not have significant impacts on the policy, but only ensure a more efficient and effective implementation. Their targeted nature and the lack of relevant policy options make an impact assessment not necessary.
•Regulatory fitness and simplification
This is a REFIT proposal, aiming to simplify legislation and cut burdens for stakeholders, particularly public authorities.
With the proposal to amend Regulation (EC) No 80/2009, vendors of CRSs will be relieved of the obligation, and thus its related costs, to submit audited reports to the Commission every four years. The obligation to submit such reports in case the Commission requests it remains applicable, but is no longer subject to the obligation for these companies to pre-notify the identity of the auditor to the Commission before the appointment and for the possibility for the Commission to request a change in the auditor, which were both burdensome and potentially costly obligations.
The proposal to remove the obligation for national administrations to produce an annual safety review in the field of aviation is relieving them of an administrative burden.
As regards the reporting obligation in Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 requiring Member States to report on approved workshops that may install, check or repair tachographs – and the cards issued to those workshops – the proposed system is more rational and efficient as the list of such workshops will be continually updated, to the benefit of enforcement authorities and operators. Indeed, the current reporting system only provides a snapshot of the approved workshops, and in particular the cards issued to them. Since the cards issued to workshops are valid only for one year, the lists sent by Member States to the Commission gradually become outdated over the following year, before becoming almost entirely obsolete nearly one year later. Keeping updated lists publicly available reduces implementation and enforcement costs, for drivers and operators, by ensuring that they have access to the approved workshops and fitters, in particular in other Member States, as well as for enforcement authorities, which would otherwise need to check these lists for enforcement purposes. Member States which already have such a website will not see any change in the administrative burden of this proposal.
• Fundamental rights