Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and Minister of Transport Rosen Zhelyazkov have urged MEPs to carefully consider Mobility Package 1 at the upcoming session on 8 July and amend its current version which imposes new restrictions and disproportionate measures within the EU.

The letter to European Parliament is also signed by the foreign and transport ministers of 8 other EU countries: Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Romania. The ministers express their regret that some provisions of the package have deviated substantially from the objectives of improving social conditions for drivers, regulating road transport and maintaining the EU single market. Mobility 1 creates major discord within the EU Council, with 9 of the member countries opposing the provisional inter-institutional agreement, the ministers stress. According to their letter no assessment has been made of the new environmental impact regulations and the functioning of the EU single market. The impossibility of applying them in practice will exclude some countries from the market and will set down insurmountable barriers to others. This will lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions because of the requirement for the return of heavy vehicles to the member state of establishment at least once every 8 weeks. The ministers point out that their demand is based on their concern for the sector which has been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, a sector in which millions of EU citizens are employed.