Press Release: Enlargement : European Commission proposes to delay access to the national markets of Member States in the road haulage sector after accession

A proposal on transitional arrangements delaying the free access to the national markets of Member States by non-resident hauliers ('cabotage') from current candidate countries after their accession was put forward by the European Commission on 8 November 2001. Operational costs of road goods transport by operators from most candidate countries are still significantly below the EU average and these existing cost differentials could lead to damaging disruption in the national markets of current Member States in the case of sudden cabotage market opening. Such disruption would not be in the interest of the Union. This proposal is now transmitted to the Member States who are supposed to adopt an EU common position before negotiating with the candidate countries