The European Parliament voted today on a controversial proposal concerning the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities. The debate boiled down to one issue: the inclusion or not of self employed drivers in the working time directive and in the end the European Parliament voted to include them. ALDE agrees with the European Commission that including them in legislation would be unworkable.

Marian Harkin, (Independent, IRL) ALDE coordinator on the Employment Committee argues that bringing these workers under this legislation would be hugely damaging for small and medium sized entrepreneurs and lead to a heavier administrative burden to comply with legislation which is" virtually impossible to implement".

"This legislation will have a significant impact on drivers and put them out of business at a time when we are trying to encourage entrepreneurs to start up. A core ALDE principle is that entrepreneurs should be free to organise their own working time provided they fully comply with driving time regulations. Self employed drivers are already limited to a maximum level of driving time without us adding another layer of bureaucracy."

She continued: "There has been a breathtaking level of scaremongering about road safety issues. An investigation carried out by the European Commission does not warrant the inclusion of self employed workers in this legislation on the grounds of road safety. Our priority should be strict enforcement of driving time regulations using the digital tachograph and the prevention of driver fatigue by enforcing driving time and rest period rules that apply to all drivers".

For more information, please contact:

Neil Corlett: +33-3-88 17 41 67 or +32-478-78 22 84

e-mail: neil.corlett@europarl.europa.eu