EU fights Greece over free establishment of road hauliers

The European Commission decided last month to bring Greece to the European Court of Justice for its failure to comply with European rules on freedom of establishment for operators in the road transport. The Commission considered that Greece has failed to respect its obligation under the Treaty by restricting the registration of public use vehicles, and by introducing minimum tariffs for transportation services.

Restrictive Greek rules on the registration of vehicles used to provide transport services to third parties (so called ”public use vehicles“) and the obligation to charge fixed tariffs is liable to dissuade foreign operators from entering the road haulage sector. It also impedes the ones already established from further developing their business.

Setting up minimum tariffs for road transport services was asked for by Romanian hauliers too, and the actions of the Commission against Greece show that should these fixed tariffs would be accepted, they will pave the way to a similar path to the European Court of Justice.