No Agreement on Week-end Traffic Bans

Publication date: 05 December 2003

During today's Transport Council, Ministers failed to reach an agreement on banning heavy goods vehicles (HGV) on week-ends and public holidays on the Trans-European road network. Delegations from Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and France stressed their general opposition to having a Community instrument in this field, as they considered that, under the principle of subsidiarity, the matter does not fall within the Community's competence. At present, seven Member States apply driving restrictions under their national legislation. In the absence of Community legislation, the Member States are free to introduce such schemes provided that they are not discriminatory.

15101_03_presse_335.pdf (128 KB)

The Commission's initial proposal (COM(1998) 115 final - 1998/0096 (COD)) was put forward in March 1998 and amended once in December 2000 (COM(2000) 759 final) and a second time in August 2003 (COM(2003) 473 final).
com1998_115_final_weekend_traffic_bans.pdf (45 KB)

com2000_759_final.pdf (47 KB)

com2003_0473_traffic_bans.pdf (55 KB)