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Mobility and Transport 2022

2022 Annual Report on monitoring the application of EU law - Infringement cases by policy area

Infringement cases open at year-end 2018 - 2022

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By clicking on the multi-level chart, you can consult, for 2022, the number of infringement cases open at the year-end per policy sector and per type of infringement.

Compliance promotion activities in 2022

Guidelines on how to implement EU law

In the area of road transport, the Commission developed several sets of Q&As and guidance notes, notably:

  • For implementation of the new EU rules on the posting of drivers in the road transport sector (Directive (EU) 2020/1057):
    • The first set of Q&As provides answers to the most frequently asked general questions ranging from scope of the Directive to enforcement, sanctions and penalties.
    • The second set of Q&As clarifies when drivers are posted in the context of transporting goods, using a range of different scenarios.
    • The third set is of Q&As the same type as the second one, but in the context of transport of passengers.
    • The factsheet summarises the new rules in a visually-appealing and user-friendly manner.
  • For the implementation of the new EU rules relating to the use of tachographs in road transport (Regulation (EU) 2020/1054):
    • A set of Q&As on the obligation to manually record border crossings in the tachographs;
    • Two guidance notes (9 and 10) on a standard form to be used by control officers (9), as well as practical manual recording of border crossings in analogue tachographs (10).
  • For the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2020/1055 amending Regulations (EC) 071/2009 and (EC) 1072/2009:
    • A guidance note in the form of Q&As on cabotage; and
    • A guidance note in the form of Q&As on the new rule on the return of the vehicle every eight weeks to the place of establishment.

In the area of passenger rights, the Commission updated information on the Your Europe website as well as an overview published on the Europa website of case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union for air passenger rights based on recent jurisprudence. Moreover, the Commission contributed to the update of the European Commission’s passenger rights app. Additionally, the Commission has led an online passenger rights campaign in all EU Member States to raise citizens’ awareness about passenger rights in Europe.

Meetings with Member States

In 2022, the Commission continued to use several meeting-based tools, such as committees, networks, expert groups and workshops, to promote the good implementation of EU transport legislation. Examples include:

Package meetings

Package meetings are meetings between the Commission and a Member State to discuss implementation issues and infringement cases in a given policy area. They can be held before the Commission has detected a breach of EU law or concern existing EU Pilot or infringement cases of the Member State. Package meetings can be an efficient tool to deal with challenges a Member State may face in a policy area, across different acts of EU legislation.

In 2022, the Commission held several package meetings in the area of mobility and transport, namely with Belgium, Bulgaria and Spain.

Other compliance promotion tools

  • In 2022, the Commission carried out 20 Aviation Security inspections (and in addition 3 third-country assessments in the context of One-Stop-Security) and 15 Maritime Security inspections to monitor compliance with the common basic transport security standards and to ensure the swift detection and correction of failures.
  • In the area of passenger rights, the Commission prepared a new reporting template for reports on national enforcement actions under passenger rights legislation, based on best practices gathered from the reports submitted in previous years.
  • In the area of road transport, in 2022, the Commission launched a contract for the so-called TRACE 2 project which ultimately aims at providing training material and practical guidance for enforcement authorities. The project is currently ongoing. Furthermore, the Commission adopted 4 positive opinions (2 concerning Spain and 1 concerning France and Poland each) under the Eurovignette Directive regarding new tolling arrangements in these Member States.
  • In the area of sustainable transport, the Commission is proactively supporting the correct implementation of the Clean Vehicle Directive (CVD) by monitoring vehicle procurement contracts encoded in the Tender Electronic Database (TED) – with the support of an external contractor – and sharing the extracted data with Member States. The intention is also to publish target trackers for Member States’ progress towards achieving these CVD targets on the European Alternative Fuels Observatory (EAFO).
  • In the rail sector, in 2022, the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) launched the second cycle of monitoring of the national safety authorities to follow-up on the implementation of its previous recommendations. In addition, by the end of 2022, ERA had performed audits and inspections of 23 notified bodies out of 60 acting across the Union.
  • In the maritime sector, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) continued its regular visits and inspections to Member States to verify their compliance with relevant EU legal instruments.

Follow-up given to petitions

In 2022, the Commission handled 40 petitions in the area of mobility and transport concerning an alleged breach of EU law. The petitions received concerned a wide range of issues relating, inter alia, to urban mobility; road transport; passenger rights; road, rail and aviation safety; sustainable transport.

In terms of follow-up to the petitions received:

  • For seven petitions, a potential individual breach of EU law was identified, but in these cases, the petitioners were invited, in accordance with the principles set out in Commission Communication “EU law: Better results through better application”, to make use of the legal redress mechanisms available at the national level.
  • For 20 petitions, no breach of EU law could be identified.
  • For 12 petitions, even though no infringement was launched as a follow-up, the issues raised in the petitions were already being addressed in the context of on-going discussions or actions from the relevant service or would be tackled in the context of new legislative initiatives or guidance.

Important preliminary rulings

  • Lux Express Estonia, C-614/20;
  • Liberty Lines, C-437/21;
  • Laudamotion, C-111/21;
  • Airhelp (Retard de vol de réacheminement), C-451/20;
  • Austrian Airlines (Exonération de la responsabilité du transporteur aérien), C-589/20;
  • United Airlines, C-561/20;
  • flightright (Transport aérien de Stuttgart à Kansas City), C-436/21;
  • LOT (Indemnisation imposée par l’autorité administrative), C-597/20;
  • SATA International - Azores Airlines (Défaillance du système de ravitaillement en carburant), C-308/21;
  • HV (Suspension du droit de conduire), C-266/21;
  • Pricoforest, C-13/21;
  • Skeyes, C-353/20;
  • Sea Watch, C-14 and 15/21;
  • Port de Bruxelles and Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, C-229/21;
  • Wiener Landesregierung (Révocation d'une assurance de naturalisation), C-118/20.

Outlook for 2023

In 2023, the Commission will continue important enforcement work in the area of Mobility and Transport. In particular, the Commission plans to:

  • Monitor and assess national measures transposing the following directives whose transposition deadlines expire in 2023, on:
  • Closely monitor restrictions to market access and the implementation of provisions on rail market liberalisation.
  • Monitor the development of sustainable transport, digitalisation (in particular of the provisions supplementing the Intelligence Transport Systems Directive) and safety and security in all modes of transport, often on the basis of reports from sectoral agencies or Commission services.
  • Finalise the on-going work on revised Interpretative Guidelines for Regulation (EC) 1370/2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road.
  • Monitor the correct and consistent application and enforcement of the Mobility Package I provisions.
  • Pay particular attention to the monitoring of the enforcement of passenger rights Regulations.