The Transports Law - made by MTI
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Veni, vidi, vici
In the last moment, when a lot of people thought that it won't appear, the ordinance package regarding the road transport was approved by the Government. The formal consulting with the patronal associations raised a lot of worries regarding the new norms.
The adopting of the ordinances shows once more how quick the things can move on the legislative level when there's a political will. After more than two years of intense discussions regarding the necessity of a new law of transports, of which the last year was dedicated to the "polishing" within the Parliament of a text that was supposed to be approved by all the interested parties, it seems that the Ministry of Transports and Infrastructure decided to manage the things on its own. And, as in accordance with the old adage (we came, we saw, we conquered), it have beaten down without a fight any opposition, doing without asking.
"What we thought that it will happen, since the project of the law was rejected by the Industry and Service Commission within the Chamber of Representatives, it happened. It's interesting that, along the time, most of the regulations in the road transport were emitted through urgency ordinances during the summertime", underlined Radu Dinescu, general secretary of UNTRR.
The "battle" for the new transports law isn't over yet: the emitting of the norms and the approval within the Parliament are following. But, judging from the way the law appeared, it seems that MTI won't have any problem to impose their will also in the following stages, in the current political context.
"We don't understand why such haste for promoting such an important law. We don't understand why it was necessary to be adopted by means of Urgency Ordinance in the parliamentary holiday, especially when there was already a version at the Parliament, which we discussed and which was covering the needs of the State, as well as the ones of the market. It's a big question and a total lack of transparency. Under the cover of the European regulations implementation, which weren't, in fact, correctly implemented, we reached this situation when we have a law of transports that doesn't solve any of the problems it should have solved. It's about a "skeleton" that should be "dressed" by the norms, but if the skeleton is bad, the norms will be as bad as it", declared Augustin Hagiu, president of FORT.
ISCTR starts operating on the 4th of December
The Ordinance regarding the creation of the State Inspectorate for Control in the Road Transports (ISCTR), as well as the Ordinance regarding the road transports, was published in the Official Monitor no. 625 from the 2nd of September.
This way, ISCTR becomes the specialized permanent technical organism of the MTI, designated to ensure the inspection and the control of the respecting of the internal and international regulations in the road transports.
The budget of the Inspectorate will be ensured from the monthly transfer of 60% of the total amounts cashed for the services of ARR and 20% from the ones of RAR.
"They took money from the budgets of RAR and ARR and now the budget of ISCTR is around a billion RON. It's true, it isn't our business why they did it this way, but we wouldn't want RAR to increase the prices soon, because their budget is diminished", explained Vasile Stefanescu, president of COTAR.
The management of ISCTR is ensured by a council of 5 people, the president of which being the State chief inspector. All of them are appointed and revoked by the Minister of Transports. This is one of the points that the patronal associations are attacking. They requested that the management should be appointed after an exam.
ISCTR will be organized on 8 general inspectorates, each led by a chief territorial inspector, also appointed by the minister.
The attributions, the organization and functioning rules and the structure of ISCTR will be approved through government decision in a term of 60 days.
ISCTR will start its activity on the 4th of December this year.
The norms are making the law
The Ordinance regarding the road transports - the new Transports Law - will come into effect also on the 4th of December, when the OUG 109/2005 will be abrogated.
One of the interesting aspects of the new law regards the compulsoriness of equipping the vehicles with plates showing the maximal authorized dimensions and masses of the vehicle, to make the control easier. The model and the place of the plates will be established through the norms, which will be elaborated in term of 60 days.
A lot of the new law's provisions will make sense only after the norms will appear.
"This law can't be applied. Over 40 of the articles refer to the norms. This is why the ordinance met a negative opinion. Practically, you couldn't have anything to improve and on which to work and it's possible that the norms will be the same", declared Radu Dinescu, general secretary of UNTRR.
In this situation, the patronal associations are asking if it isn't about hidden interests that motivated the haste of the adopting of the ordinances.
"Some people's interest is above any law. The law that is now in the Parliament was discussed with all the patronal associations, it's 99% ready, but it seems that it's not suitable for some people's interests. There are 45 articles in the ordinance that are referred to the norms. This isn't a law any longer. This means that we, the transporters, are at the hand of the politicians, because you can change the norms anytime, while the law is more difficult to be changed. This is the interest, that the law of transports to be under the influence of the minister of Transports, no matter who that is", declared Vasile Stefanescu, the president of COTAR.
It's obvious that we are witnessing a major rupture between the representatives of the transporters and the ministry of resort and we are asking why this happened. The transport market is traversing a difficult moment and an unclear law is the least thing that should have happened. On the other hand, a new transports law was requested by the transporters themselves and if the MTI decided finally to respond to their wish, after more than 2 years of promises, the way of doing it is strange, raising the protests of all the patronal associations.
"Instead of ensuring a certain degree of predictability to the business, the new law cancels this idea. No one knows what the law comprises. No one knows what it prepares as a frame. Within the social dialogue commission, they didn't present us any impact study, any statistical data. The people at MTI are away from the reality we are living in. The chosen moment is a very good one for the Ministry and for the Government. In the following months, they will create a control system that they can use anytime in the political fight for the next elections", said Augustin Hagiu, the president of FORT.
Vasile Stefanescu, president of COTAR:
"We asked that the chief inspectors not to be politically appointed, but after a contest, and within the dialogue commission this aspect was approved, but it wasn't included in the ordinance. We will refer to all the legal methods, we will attack in the Court of Law, we will ask the Parliament to promote the OG that now is in discussions and that was supposed to be the law of transports. In the end, we will also organize protest movements. COTAR will have a general assembly to discuss this and, also, we will have a meeting with the other patronal associations."
Augustin Hagiu, president of FORT:
"The way the ordinances appeared is attesting the fact that we are not respected at all, that there isn't any interest to create a unitary legislation to cover the market's situation, the European law and the needs of the transport operators. For sure, we will approach it as it is. We will organize protests, after we will have a meeting with the professional associations in the road transports. During this meeting, we will establish exactly what will be the schedule of the manifestations and the steps that we'll follow."
Radu Dinescu, general secretary of UNTRR:
"We will follow step by step what will happen and we will take all the measures regarding the possibilities of changing the law. In the same time, we will elaborate a project of law made by UNTRR, which will extremely simple and viable. We will turn to the political will, to see if there is such a thing and if they will want to do things easier and more transparent, so that the companies could concentrate on their business, not to be lost in the bureaucracy. Ever since 2008, we were sending versions of a transports law, but they weren't taken into consideration. The Ministry had enough time to make this law the best way possible, approved by all the partners, by the authorities and by the patronal associations. Anyway, we didn't lose our hope yet. We had discussions with MTI and we established that, even if they can't make any changes until the 4th of December, at the beginning of the next year, when the things will be quieter, to make a very good and applicable law."
Radu BORCESCU
radu.borcescu@ziuacargo.ro
Publicat in revista Ziua Cargo din September 2011
