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Road Freight Transport Services in Croatia According to the 2004 Road Transport Act: Wise Harmonization With the Acquis or Sand in the Eyes?

According to the Implementation Plan for the Stabilisation and Association Agreement for Croatia, road transport is one of the areas where adoption of the new legislation or amending of the one in force was needed in frames of the harmonization of the Croatian transport law with the acquis communautaire by the end of 2004. Pursuant to that, the new Road Transport Act from 2004 has been enacted. The paper deals with the issue of harmonization of its provisions related to the access to the road freight transport market with the acquis communautaire. It is argued that this new legislative act has been only partially compliant with the requests as set out in the respective EU legislation. The in-depth analysis of its provisions shows that many measures to protect the national carriers in the road freight transport are still embodied in its text, and that it is not compliant with the EU provisions regarding admission to the occupation and freedom to provide services. The international road freight transport is still subject to bilateral licensing quotas that are to be determined in the bilateral agreements between Croatia and EU member states. The provisions regarding the issuing of the EU licence and freedom to provide services for the EU licensee are coming into force only upon Croatian entry into the EU. The cabotage market remains completely closed for the non-Croatian carriers, with no special time restriction as to the implementation of this restrictive measure. There is a clear perspective of negotiating a transitional arrangement between Croatia and the EU, regulating the gradual phasing in of the opening of the respective national road transport markets and all the related issues. Such arrangement, as known in some of the new Member States, would give time to the numerous national hauliers to become more competitive on the Single market, and postpone opening of the cabotage markets in the EU to the newcoming Croatian carriers.

road transport; services; acquis communautaire; quota; restriction; licence

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