The International Road Transport Union (IRU) demands that Europe use legal means against Austria’s restrictions on goods transport at the Brenner Pass. “The current situation is unsustainable and leads to traffic jams up to 70 kilometres long.”
The discussion about the measures at the Brenner Pass has been dragging on for years. The tunnel is the main link between Germany and the rest of Western Europe on the one hand and Italy and the Balkan countries on the other. The local authorities impose restrictions on freight traffic there, but the transport sector is fed up. The Federation of Belgian Enterprises (FEB) also took up the pen against the issue in the past.
Legal toolbox
“With traffic jams of up to 70 kilometres long, a solution to the Brenner bottleneck remains elusive. Discussions may no longer suffice. The European Commission needs to open its legal toolbox,” said IRU director for EU affairs, Raluca Marian.
At a European-level meeting, both Germany and Italy, through their transport ministers, stressed that the current situation is unsustainable and leads to long queues at the borders. Above all, they stressed that the principle of free movement must be maintained.
Free movement
“Unfortunately, Austria has shown no real willingness to solve the Brenner Pass problem, which has been dragging on for years. We keep hearing that rail and combined transport are the solution. But as the past has shown, rail alone cannot handle the volume of goods on the Brenner Pass. Both modes of transport and their combinations are needed. Restricting the free movement of goods within the EU has a significant negative impact on the functioning of the internal market,” Marian said.
