Many weeks have passed since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, however, the European Union has only introduced uniform regulations regarding the validity of documents and authorizations for the transport industry now. Check what exactly these measures apply to.
Yesterday, the EU Official Journal published an important EU and Council Regulation establishing specific temporary measures due to the COVID-19 epidemic regarding the renewal or extension of certain certificates, licenses and permits, and the postponement of certain periodic inspections and training. The EU regulations have entered into force the day after publication, i.e. today.
The extraordinary measures provided for in the legal act apply to documents that expire between 1 February and 31 August 2020. These documents are the following:
– driving licenses and professional qualifications of drivers (their validity has been extended by 7 months),
– technical inspections of vehicles (their validity has been extended by 7 months),
– community licenses, certificates and permits for road transport (their validity has been extended by 6 months).
As explained by the Spanish federation of transport associations Fenadismer, each Member State must decide whether to apply these special measures to the transport industry or not (if no derogation is required, the European Commission must be informed). However, Member States will be required to comply with deadlines for foreign companies operating in their territory.
For example, if Denmark did not decide to extend the validity of vehicle technical inspections, it would not be able to require the Portuguese truck to have a current inspection if the Portuguese government introduced this extraordinary measure and the carrier falls within the prescribed period – explains Fenadismer.
Countries, where the pandemic will require further extensions of transport documents, will be able to apply them. They will have to submit an appropriate application to the European Commission for this purpose.