EU TFEU: Land, sea and air transport

The EU Treaty of Lisbon continues to make a distinction between rail, road and inland waterway, to which the TFEU Transport Title applies, and sea and air transport, still treated as optional with regard to EU legislation.


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Article 100 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) is found in the consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, published in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJ 9.5.2008 C 115/87–88:

Part Three ‘Policies and internal actions of the Union’

Title VI TFEU ‘Transport’

Article 100 TFEU
(ex Article 80 TEC)

1. The provisions of this Title shall apply to transport by rail, road and inland waterway.

2. The European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, may lay down appropriate provisions for sea and air transport. They shall act after consulting the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

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In Article 2, point 75 of the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) the intergovernmental conference (IGC 2007) laid out the specific amendments to Article 80 TEC (OJ 17.12.2007 C 306/68).

75) In Article 80, paragraph 2 shall be replaced by the following:

‘2. The European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, may lay down appropriate provisions for sea and air transport. They shall act after consulting the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.’.

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The TFEU table of equivalences tells us that Article 80 TEC first became Article 80 TFEU (ToL), but later renumbered Article 100 TFEU in the consolidated version (OJ 17.12.2007 C 306/210).

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The current Article 80 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) is found under Title V ‘Transport’ in the latest consolidated version of the treaties in force (OJ 29.12.2006 C 321 E/73):

Article 80 TEC

1. The provisions of this title shall apply to transport by rail, road and inland waterway.

2. The Council may, acting by a qualified majority, decide whether, to what extent and by what procedure appropriate provisions may be laid down for sea and air transport.

The procedural provisions of Article 71 shall apply.


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For the sake of a systematic comparison, we look at the Article during the previous treaty reform stages.

First, we turn to the European Convention.

Article III-143 of the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe looked like this (OJ 18.7.2003 C 169/55):

Article III-143 Draft Constitution

1. This Section shall apply to transport by rail, road and inland waterway.

2. European laws or framework laws may lay down appropriate measures for sea and air transport. They shall be adopted after consultation of the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee.

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Article III-245 of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe adopted the wording of the European Convention without change (OJ 16.12.2004 C 310/108).

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What has been said about Article 100 TFEU?


United Kingdom

Professor Steve Peers covered the Treaty of Lisbon in a number of Statewatch Analyses. ‘EU Reform Treaty Analysis no. 3.3: Revised text of Part Three, Titles I to VI of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC): Internal Market and competition’ (Version 2, 23 October 2007) includes the current Title V Transport.

Peers highlighted the amendment to Article 80 TEC and TFEU (ToL), to be renumbered Article 100 TFEU in the consolidated version, and he added the following comment (page 23):

“In practice, legislation on sea and air transport is already adopted by the co-decisions procedure.”

The analysis 3.3 and other useful Statewatch analyses are available through:

http://www.statewatch.org/euconstitution.htm

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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) offers a convenient source of brief annotations on Lisbon Treaty amendments in ‘A comparative table of the current EC and EU treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon’ (Command Paper 7311, published 21 January 2008). It offers the following comment on Article 100 TFEU, Article 80 TFEU (ToL) in the original Lisbon Treaty (page 11):

“Draws and Article 80 TEC. QMV already applies, co-decision applied to paragraph 2.”

The FCO comparative table is available at:

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7311/7311.asp

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The UK House of Commons Library Research Paper 07/86 ‘The Treaty of Lisbon: amendments to the Treaty establishing the European Community’ (published 6 December 2007) wrapped up Transport in a brief comment on page 56:

“F. Transport

Title V, Articles 70-80 (Constitution Articles III-236 – 245) are on transport and are based largely on Articles 70 – 75 TEC, but with a change in the voting procedure to the OLP with QMV, except for Article 72, which replaces unanimity in the Constitution Article III-237 with a “special legislative procedure”. Other, minor, changes are Article 75(c), which adds the EP to those bodies to be consulted, and Article 78 (Constitution Article III-243), allowing the Article concerning German unification to be repealed after 5 years.

Present Articles 154 – 156 on Trans-European Networks (TENS) have been moved to Title VII and contain only minor amendments.”

The Library Research Paper 07/86 is available at:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2007/rp07-086.pdf

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The House of Lords European Union Committee report ‘The Treaty of Lisbon: an impact assessment, Volume I: Report’ (HL Paper 62-I, published 13 March 2008) made no explicit reference to Article 100 TFEU.

The report is accessible at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldeucom/62/62.pdf

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Sweden

The consultation paper of the government of Sweden, ‘Lissabonfördraget; Statsrådsberedningen, Departementsserien (Ds), Ds 2007:48’ published 20 December 2007, bundled together transport and trans-European networks under the headline ‘Transporter och transeuropeiska nät’ (page 280 to 282).

The text offers an overview of the coming Title VI ‘Transport’, and it remarks that in practice provisions on air and sea transport are already adopted by co-decision:

”Åtgärder på sjöfarts- respektive luftfartsområdena ska antas i enlighet med det ordinarie lagstiftningsförfarandet (artikel 80.2 i EUF-fördraget). I praktiken antas lagstiftning på områdena redan idag gemensamt av Europaparlamentet och rådet med kvalificerad majoritet.”

The consultation paper ’Lissabonfördraget’ is available at:

http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c6/09/49/81/107aa077.pdf

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Finland

The Finnish ratification bill, ‘Hallituksen esitys Eduskunnalle Euroopan unionista tehdyn sopimuksen ja Euroopan yhteisön perustamissopimuksen muuttamisesta tehdyn Lissabonin sopimuksen hyväksymisestä ja laiksi sen lainsäädännön alaan kuuluvien määräysten voimaansaattamisesta’ (HE 23/2008 vp), includes a systematic commentary on the treaty provisions. The explanation on Article 80 TFEU (ToL), renumbered Article 100 TFEU, is one example of this methodical approach (page 206):

”80 artiklan (uusi 100 artikla) 2 kohtaa, joka koskee meri- ja lentoliikenteestä annettavaa säännöstöä, muutetaan siten, että parlamentti ja neuvosto antavat tavallista lainsäätämisjärjestystä noudattaen meri- ja lentoliikennettä koskevat aiheelliset säännökset alueiden komiteaa sekä talous- ja sosiaalikomiteaa kuultuaan. Nykyisen SEY 80 artiklan 2 kohdassa määrätään neuvoston voivan määräenemmistöllä päättää, annetaanko meri- ja lentoliikennettä koskevia aiheellisia säännöksiä sekä missä laajuudessa ja mitä menettelyä noudattaen niitä annetaan, ja että tällöin sovelletaan SEY 71 artiklan määräyksiä menettelystä. SEY 71 artiklassa tarkoitettu menettely vastaa SEUT 80 artiklan 2 kohtaan nyt kirjattavaa menettelyä. SEUT 80 artikla vastaa perustuslakisopimuksen III-245 artiklaa säädösinstrumentin yksilöintiä eurooppalaiksi tai -puitelaiksi lukuun ottamatta.”

The Finnish ratification bill is available at:

http://www.finlex.fi/fi/esitykset/he/2008/20080023.pdf

The Swedish language version of the ratification bill ‘Regeringens proposition till Riksdagen med förslag om godkännande av Lissabonfördraget om ändring av fördraget om Europeiska unionen och fördraget om upprättandet av Europeiska gemenskapen och till lag om sättande i kraft av de bestämmelser i fördraget som hör till området för lagstiftningen’ (RP 23/2008 rd), offers the same observations on page 209:

”Artikel 80.2 (blivande artikel 100), som gäller bestämmelser för sjöfart och luftfart ändras så att parlamentet och rådet i enlighet med det ordinarie lagstiftningsförfarandet får fastställa lämpliga bestämmelser för sjöfart och luftfart efter att ha hört Ekonomiska och sociala kommittén och Regionkommittén. I nuvarande artikel 80.2 i EG-fördraget bestäms att rådet får med kvalificerad majoritet besluta huruvida, i vilken omfattning och på vilket sätt lämpliga bestämmelser ska kunna meddelas för sjöfart och luftfart och att procedurreglerna i artikel 71 ska tillämpas. Det förfarande som avses i artikel 71 i EGfördraget motsvarar det förfarande som nu skrivs in i artikel 80.2 i EUF-fördraget. Artikel 80 i EUF-fördraget motsvarar artikel III- 245 i det konstitutionella fördraget med undantag för att rättsaktsinstrumentet individualiseras som europalag eller ramlag.”

The ratification bill in Swedish can be accessed at:

http://www.finlex.fi/sv/esitykset/he/2008/20080023.pdf

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The Treaty of Lisbon retains traces of the historical dichotomy between transport in the internal market (by rail, road and inland waterway; first paragraph) and sea and air transport, at least initially more concerned with relations to third countries (second paragraph).



Ralf Grahn