Belgium rebels against French-led push on trucker rules

The bid to target truckers from Central Europe risks ensnaring those from Belgium as well.

France’s effort to create strong EU rules to protect its truckers against cheap competition has gone so far that even close ally Belgium accuses Paris of “national protectionism.”

With EU negotiators sitting down Wednesday evening in a bid to see the Mobility Package over the finish line, Belgium has scaled back its membership of the French-led Road Alliance, a coalition of 12 countries with similar views on the reform of trucker rules.

The fight over the highly contentious trucker reforms traditionally split the Continent’s governments east to west. Richer countries want restrictions to protect local truckers’ work conditions, while six vocal Central and Eastern governments say it’s an effort to undermine free competition.

But in the final stages of talks the alliance among rich countries is fraying amid plans to impose a “cooling-off period” on trucks after they complete a series of pick-ups and drop-offs in a foreign country — called cabotage.

That provision is meant to prevent an influx of cheap labor from flooding the bloc’s well-off countries, but it would be a blow for Belgium too. Because of its small size, crossing borders is a normal part of the working day for about half of Belgian truckers, according to a study by Belgium’s road transport institute.

“At some point you wonder whether the position supported by countries like France isn’t essentially aimed at fighting the arrival of all carriers, whether they’re from a country with lower salaries or a country with high salaries,” Belgian Transport Minister François Bellot told POLITICO. “As they’re defending them now, the measures can be likened to national protectionism.”

Bellot’s position matches that of Central and Eastern European countries that have come out against the reforms — albeit for different reasons.

France forged the Road Alliance in 2017 with eight other countries to combat what they said was “unfair competition” from the cheap workers in the bloc’s newest member countries. Greece and Switzerland later joined the pack, while the Netherlands is an observer.

“We look at the European road transport with the same ambition: to improve the rights of workers, simplify the work of businesses in a market that’s really fair,” Alain Vidalies, France’s former transport secretary, said following the launch of the alliance, adding that Europe should formulate a response to what he called social dumping in road transport.

But Belgian companies feel betrayed by the latest direction of talks. If a cooling-off period is included in the final rules, it would mean their trucks could not be used for consecutive operations abroad until the time lapses.

The EU must take measures to ensure everyone plays by the same rules but a regular, mandatory standstill would be a “catastrophe” for Belgian business, Philippe Degraef, director of Belgian road transport association Febetra, said.

Belgium has become “collateral damage” of an effort to stop truckers from working abroad without ever returning home, Degraef said.

“If you’ve got France and Germany against you, I fear the worst, of course.”

Size matters

A cooling-off period wasn’t included in the original proposal the Commission put forward in May 2017.

But as the EU institutions considered the texts, Parliament proposed the addition of a mandatory 60-hour break for trucks in their home country; while EU governments in the Council backed a five-day wait before the next round of cabotage.

French Ecology Minister Elisabeth Borne, who was transport minister at the time, said the mechanism would be “a particularly effective lever to prevent cabotage from becoming a means to operate permanently in the territory of another member state.”

Belgium argues the measure not only has a disproportionate impact on smaller countries but is also redundant thanks to another rule included in the plans to impose local pay standards on drivers. “That wipes out practically all the differences linked to big wage gaps,” effectively preventing social dumping, Bellot said.

The country’s decision to downgrade its membership of the Road Alliance to observer status, taken last month, was a signal of frustration, according to Bellot. “We wanted to make a gesture … to say that we’re no longer the active member we could be in the past.”

The standoff is “disappointing,” said Bellot, pointing to Belgium’s role in the alliance since 2017. “France had the idea to create the Road Alliance, but Belgium has been the motor,” he said.

Belgium agrees with the other Road Alliance members on the majority of the package’s measures, including the need for strict monitoring, new restrictions on vans and a ban on drivers resting in truck cabins.

The country has proposed an exemption that would see the cooling-off requirement waived if the truck returns to its home base — but that’s found minimal support elsewhere. If the cooling-off period makes it into the final law, Belgium will consider a legal challenge at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Bellot said, “over its serious and disproportionate burden on the carriers of small countries.”

A diplomat said France, meanwhile, is prioritizing the conclusion of talks to get the reforms over the line.

“It is important to deliver enforceable rules to safeguard social rights, enhance road safety, and ensure a well-functioning, fair and secure internal market,” the official said — noting all transport ministers in the Road Alliance echoed that position.