European Commission refers Cyprus, the Netherlands and Portugal to Court for failing to upgrade road transport registers

The Commission has decided to refer Cyprus, the Netherlands and Portugal to the Court of Justice of the EU as they did not upgrade their registers of road transport companies. All Member States should have upgraded the connection between their registers and the revised European Registers of Road Transport Undertakings (ERRU), by 30 January 2019, as required by the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/480.

The ERRU allows information exchange between Member States on road transport companies established in the EU. It is an essential instrument to ensure enforcement of EU legislation and fair competition among operators in the road transport sector.

Since Cyprus, the Netherlands and Portugal have not upgraded their connections within the legal deadline, the Commission has decided to refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the EU.

The Commission opened an EU infringement procedure against the three countries by sending a letter of formal notice to the national authorities in July 2019, followed by a reasoned opinion in November 2019.