Digitalising and streamlining transport reporting obligations under the Third Mobility Package

Key messages

• To facilitate an efficient EU transport and logistics sector and smooth functioning of the single market it is essential that administrative burdens linked to reporting obligations in the transport sector are reduced. To this end, BusinessEurope welcomes the Commission’s recent initiatives under the Third Mobility Package to streamline and digitalise reporting obligations for freight transport and ships making port calls in EU ports.
• While the requirement for public authorities to accept electronic freight transport information (eFTI) will help shift to an electronic reporting environment, the scope of this regulation should not be extended to oblige operators to provide documentation electronically, nor should it cover any business-to-business information exchange.
• Important elements under the eFTI proposal should be included in the regulation itself and not left to be defined at a later stage, such as the definition of the data sets and sub-sets, and rules on access to data and processing thereof for public authorities. Without this information it is at this stage not possible to anticipate the impact of the eFTI proposal.
• The option for Member States to implement specific national reporting obligations for port calls should not be to the detriment of the proper functioning of the European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe).