Cabotage

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cabotage is the provision of transport services within a country by a foreign transport company (or the right to do so).

Origin of the term

The term originally comes from seafaring and means coastal shipping ( Italian : cabotaggio ), i.e. the journey from cape to cape or between the various ports in the region. The word probably comes from the French , from caboter , meaning to drive from port to port along the coast, which refers to the navigation made between destination ports.

Cabotage originally simply means “transport services within a country”. Today, cabotage is specifically understood as “transport services within a country that are provided by foreign transport companies”.

The term has been used since the 15th century for

Different within the European Union

  • large cabotage = transport between two EU countries by the carrier of a third country,
  • small cabotage = transport within an EU country by a foreign carrier.

Cabotage freedom

Freedom from cabotage means that means of transport from one state have the right to offer and carry out transport services for a fee in another state. Example: Inland vessels flying the Polish flag have had the right to transport goods within Germany since Poland joined the EU on May 1, 2004. At the time of the ban on cabotage, this always led to an uneconomical and environmentally harmful empty journey on the return journey after a transport there.

Restricting the freedom of cabotage up to and including a complete ban on cabotage is a protectionist measure. For example, the 1944 Chicago Convention grants its signatory states the right to prohibit cabotage in air travel.

Cabotage in the European Union

Land cabotage

Cabotage is partially restricted within the European Union . This is z. B. justified with the fact that national companies should be protected against cheap competition. With the liberalization , ie the reduction of Kabotageverboten, was started many years ago.

Cabotage has been permitted without restrictions in freight transport by rail since January 1, 2007 (there is therefore no cabotage), and in passenger transport since January 1, 2010.

In road haulage cabotage has been released from 1 July 1998, but this share initially applied only to the 15 old EU member states ( EU 15 ) as well as the EEA countries Norway , Iceland and Liechtenstein .

There were transition periods for the countries that later joined the EU, with the exception of Slovenia , Malta and Cyprus , for which no transition periods were agreed.

The transition periods for transport companies from Poland , Hungary , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and since January 1, 2012 for transport companies from Bulgaria and Romania, have expired since May 1, 2009 , and the general ban on cabotage within the EU has been lifted .

The cabotage ban on Croatia ended on June 30, 2015 .

Since October 2009, cabotage has been on three cabotage trips in seven days

  • within the member state in which the original transport was unloaded, or
  • limited to one trip each in a transit country (ie a neighboring member state to the member state in which the unloading was originally carried out) (cf. Art. 8 (2) Regulation (EC) 1072/2009).

The legal violations and penalties of the transport companies are recorded in the electronics register and the Union countries exchange the data with each other if necessary.

In Germany, such a limitation to three journeys within seven days has been a national requirement since May 14, 2008. A violation of the regulation on cross-border traffic and cabotage traffic (GüKGrKabotageV) is fined as an administrative offense (§ 25 in conjunction with § 19 of the regulation). Since the entry into force of the above EU regulation, the German regulation is essentially superimposed by the EU regulation.

At present, the individual EU states still have the option of restricting cabotage by means of national provisions if the cabotage causes "severe market disruptions". The EU Commission wants to examine the effects of the new cabotage regulation on the road freight transport market by the end of 2013 at the latest. The Commission could propose a complete lifting of the restrictions, as originally requested by the European Parliament , if no social dumping is found. The Commission also wants to check how efficiently the Member States are checking compliance with the new rules.

On May 14, 2010 the cabotage regulations (Art. 8 and 9) of the EC Regulation No. 1072/2009 came into force. According to Article 19 of this regulation, a uniform regulation of cabotage in road freight transport has been implemented in the EEA states. The national “solo efforts” described above have become impossible. Article 8 of the regulation specifies the conditions under which cabotage can be carried out: either, following an international transport to the host Member State, the transporter can carry out up to three cabotage journeys with the same motor vehicle within seven days of the last unloading in the host Member State after delivery of the goods , or following an international carriage after delivery of the goods within seven days of the last unloading, he may carry out some or all of the cabotage operations in each Member State provided that they switch to one cabotage operation per Member State within three days of the entry of the unladen motor vehicles are restricted to the territory of that Member State.

The EU Commission is pushing for all cabotage restrictions to be lifted as quickly as possible in order to largely avoid empty trips and thereby reduce unnecessary traffic, fuel consumption and costs. An optimal use of a transport vehicle from an economic and ecological point of view is only possible if there are no bans on cabotage. In order to enable this within the framework of fair competition, the harmonization of other regulations is necessary, such as social regulations for the staff employed, vehicle tax, etc.

Maritime cabotage

The EU regulation 3577/92 has lifted the restrictions on the free movement of services in maritime transport for the territory of the EU. The ordinance was continuously implemented in the following years. Since January 1, 1999, all cabotage traffic within the EU has in fact been liberalized. This means that it is basically open to all community shipping companies to provide cabotage services in the individual member states.

Aerial cabotage

Based on No. 8 and 9 of the Freedoms of the Air , full cabotage has been possible within the EU for EU airlines since April 1, 1997.

Examples

Germany

Since May 14, 2010, uniform cabotage regulations apply within the EU. Cabotage transports following a border crossing may only take place after the vehicle has been completely unloaded. Cabotage can be carried out within three days of entering the territory of a Member State with an empty vehicle. The prerequisite is that cross-border transport to another Member State has been carried out beforehand and that the 7-day period is complied with.

Since January 2012, transport companies from Romania and Bulgaria have also been able to carry out cabotage in Germany.

Greece

So far, cruise ships have only been allowed to take passengers on board or discharge passengers in Greek ports if they are

  • sailing under the Greek flag or
  • are majority-owned by Greece or
  • drive with at least partly Greek crew.

Other ships, especially those without a flag from an EU country, are only allowed to make transit stops. This restriction on cabotage was enforced by Greek seafarers and port workers and is intended to secure their comparatively high wages internationally. As a result, Greek tourism escapes a lot of money: day tourists spend much less than on a longer stay in the country. The economist Yannis Stournaras estimates the loss at up to 1.5 percent of Greek economic output (around three billion euros per year).

Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou announced in April 2010 that the cabotage ban would be ended. As a result, seafarers called several strikes in all Greek ports and blocked cruise ships with non-Greek crew. For example, on April 26, 2010, local seafarers prevented almost 1,000 passengers from re-entering the “Zenith” (a cruise ship flying the Maltese flag) after an excursion.

See also

literature

  • to road haulage:
    • Jürgen Knorre: The new regulations on cabotage transports within Germany. transpr 2008, 465 [ Transport Law Journal ]
    • Hartenstein / Reuschle: Handbook of the specialist lawyer for transport and forwarding law. 3. Edition. Verlag Carl Heymanns, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-452-28142-5 , Part 4: Public Law, Chap. 20 B: Road haulage law, III: Cabotage, Rn. 52.
    • Eberhard Brandt: Cabotage in European road freight transport. transpr 2011, 1.
  • for sea cabotage:
    • Eckehard Volz, Frithjof Ehm: The EU regulation for the liberalization of sea cabotage. transpr 2009, 393.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. A road transport in which the goods are loaded and unloaded at two different points in one country and which is carried out by a vehicle that is registered in another country. (Definition of the European Conference of Transport Ministers, Federal Law Gazette 2015 II pp. 69, 72 )
  2. Duden | French | Spelling, meaning, definition, origin. Retrieved July 10, 2020 .
  3. See the definition of cabotage at Duden.de
  4. BAG press release No. 01/2012: BAG - Report: Cabotage approval for Bulgaria and Romania from February 14, 2012
  5. Information from the European Union on freight transport, including cabotage
  6. Verkehrsrundschau September 25, 2009. Article: New market and professional access rules
  7. Cabotage regulations hk24.de. Accessed April 18, 2018
  8. The rest of the ordinance comes into force on December 4, 2011 in accordance with Art.
  9. Regulation (EC) No. 1072/2009 . In: Official Journal of the European Union . L 300, p. 72 ff., November 14, 2009.
  10. Regulation (EEC) No. 3577/92 of the Council of 7 December 1992 on the application of the principle of free movement of services to maritime traffic in the Member States (maritime cabotage) . In: Official Journal of the European Communities . L 364, December 12, 1992, pp. 7-10.
  11. European Parliament: Fact Sheets. 4.5.5. Air transport: access to the market
  12. Cabotage. In: BAG - Freight Transport Law - Cabotage. Federal Office for Goods Transport, accessed on January 10, 2018 .
  13. Florian Hassel : Greece is also saving on the necessary reforms. In: Welt am Sonntag. June 13, 2010, accessed April 9, 2015 .