The European Parliament and Council have reached an agreement on the legal framework of electronic freight transport information. The European Commission made this announcement on Monday 9 December.

The legislation establishes a uniform legal framework for the transmission of digital freight transport information. All relevant public authorities are now bound by law to accept digital information when made available by stakeholders in the industry. Moreover, different IT systems and solutions used for the exchange of freight transport information have been made interoperable.

Saving paper and work

The new European rules can save an estimated 102 million working hours spent each year on managing paper documents, which is expected to translate into savings of 20-27 billion euros by 2040. The agreement should reduce the administrative burden on the transport sector and ease digital information flows, making freight transport more efficient and sustainable.

The European Commission welcomes the provisional agreement, which resulted from five years of hard works. The Commission had presented the proposal in May 2018 as part of the ‘Europe on the Move III’ proposal for safe, clean and efficient mobility.

Completion of the trilogue

Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc: “I am very happy that we were able to honour five years of excellent cooperation with the European Parliament and Council with a successful completion of the trilogue on electronic freight transport information.

“This is an important milestone for digitalisation, leading to greater efficiency of EU transport, and an important step in delivering our ‘Vision Zero Paper’.”