Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2020 on electronic freight transport information (Text with EEA relevance)

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation establishes a legal framework for the electronic communication of regulatory information between the economic operators concerned and competent authorities in relation to the transport of goods on the territory of the Union.

For that purpose, this Regulation:

(a) lays down the conditions based on which competent authorities are required to accept regulatory information when that information is made available electronically by the economic operators concerned;

(b) lays down rules on the provision of services related to making regulatory information available electronically by the economic operators concerned to competent authorities.

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation applies to:

(a) regulatory information requirements set out in: (i) Article 6(1) of EEC Council Regulation No 11 (¹); (ii) Article 3 of Council Directive 92/106/EEC (²); (iii) Article 8(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (³); (iv) Article 9(2), 16(1) and Article 18(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁴); this Regulation is without prejudice to controls by customs offices provided for in relevant provisions of Union legal acts; (v) Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of Annex A to the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR), concluded at Geneva on 30 September 1957, as referred to in Section I.1 of Annex I to Directive 2008/68/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁵); Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of the Regulations concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID), appearing as Appendix C to COTIF concluded at Vilnius on 3 June 1999, as referred to in Section II.1 of Annex II to that Directive; and Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of the Regulations annexed to the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN), concluded at Geneva on 26 May 2000, as referred to in Section III.1 of Annex III to that Directive;

(b) regulatory information requirements laid down in delegated or implementing acts adopted by the Commission pursuant to a Union legal act referred to in point (a) of this paragraph or pursuant to Directive (EU) 2016/797 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁶) or to Regulation (EC) No 300/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁷). Those delegated or implementing acts shall be listed in Part A of Annex I to this Regulation;

(c) regulatory information requirements set out in the provisions of national law listed in Part B of Annex I to this Regulation.

Subsequent to that notification, the Member States shall notify the Commission of any provisions of national law that:

(a) introduce changes to regulatory information requirements set out in the provisions of national law listed in Part B of Annex I; or

(b) lay down new relevant regulatory information requirements that require the provision of information identical, in whole or in part, to the information to be provided pursuant to the regulatory information requirements referred to in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1.

Member States shall make such notifications within one month from the adoption of such provisions.

The Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 14, amending:

(a) Part A of Annex I in order to incorporate references to any regulatory information requirements referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 of this Article;

(b) Part B of Annex I in order to incorporate or delete references to national law and regulatory information requirements in accordance with the notifications made pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘regulatory information’ means information, whether or not presented in the form of a document, that is related to the transport of goods in the territory of the Union, including of goods in transit, which is to be made available by an economic operator concerned in accordance with the provisions referred to in Article 2(1) in order to prove compliance with the relevant requirements of the acts laying down those provisions;

(2) ‘regulatory information requirement’ means a requirement to provide regulatory information;

(3) ‘competent authority’ means a public authority, agency or other body which is competent to perform tasks pursuant to the legal acts referred to in Article 2(1) and for which access to regulatory information is necessary, such as checking, enforcing, validating or monitoring compliance on the territory of a Member State;

(4) ‘electronic freight transport information’ or ‘eFTI’ means a set of data elements that are processed by electronic means for the purpose of exchanging regulatory information among the economic operators concerned and between the economic operators concerned and competent authorities;

(5) ‘eFTI data subset’ means a set of structured data elements that correspond to the regulatory information required pursuant to specific Union legal act or national law referred to in Article 2(1);

(6) ‘eFTI common data set’ means a comprehensive set of structured data elements that correspond to all the eFTI data subsets, where the data elements common to the different eFTI data subsets are included only once;

(7) ‘data element’ means the smallest unit of information which has a unique definition and precise technical characteristics, such as format, length and character type;

(8) ‘processing’ means an operation or set of operations performed on eFTI, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making eFTI available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction;

(9) ‘operation log’ means an automated record of the electronic processing of eFTI;

(10) ‘eFTI platform’ means a solution based on information and communication technology (ICT), such as an operating system, an operating environment, or a database, intended to be used for the processing of eFTI;

(11) ‘eFTI platform developer’ means a natural or legal person which has developed or acquired an eFTI platform either for the purpose of processing regulatory information related to its own economic activity or for putting that platform on the market;

(12) ‘eFTI service’ means a service consisting of eFTI processing by means of an eFTI platform, alone or in combination with other ICT solutions, including other eFTI platforms;

(13) ‘eFTI service provider’ means a natural or legal person which provides an eFTI service to the economic operators concerned on the basis of a contract;

(14) ‘economic operator concerned’ means a transport or logistics operator, or any other natural or legal person, who is responsible for making regulatory information available to competent authorities in accordance with the relevant regulatory information requirements;

(15) ‘human-readable format’ means a way of presenting data in an electronic form that can be used as information by a natural person without requiring any further processing;

(16) ‘machine-readable format’ means a way of presenting data in an electronic form that can be used for automatic processing by a machine;

(17) ‘conformity assessment body’ means a conformity assessment body within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, which is accredited in accordance with that Regulation to carry out the conformity assessment of eFTI platforms or eFTI service providers;

(18) ‘shipment’ means the transport of a determined set of goods, including waste, between the first place of pick-up and final place of delivery under the terms of a single transport contract or of multiple consecutive transport contracts, including, where applicable, the transfer between different modes of transport, irrespective of the quantity or number of containers, packages or pieces transported.

CHAPTER II

REGULATORY INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY

Article 4

Requirements for economic operators concerned

Article 5

Requirements for competent authorities

Article 6

Confidential commercial information

Competent authorities, eFTI service providers and the economic operators concerned shall take measures to ensure the confidentiality of commercial information that is processed and exchanged in accordance with this Regulation and ensure that such information may be accessed and processed only when authorised.

Article 7

eFTI common data set and eFTI data subsets

When adopting the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall:

(a) take into account relevant international conventions and Union law; and

(b) seek to ensure the interoperability of the eFTI common data set and eFTI data subsets with relevant data models that are accepted internationally or at Union level, including multimodal data models.

Article 8

Common procedures and rules for access

CHAPTER III

eFTI PLATFORMS AND eFTI SERVICE PROVIDERS

SECTION 1

Requirements for eFTI platforms and eFTI service providers

Article 9

Functional requirements for eFTI platforms

The eFTI platforms used for processing regulatory information shall provide functionalities that ensure that:

(a) personal data can be processed in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679;

(b) commercial data can be processed in accordance with Article 6;

(c) competent authorities can access and process data in accordance with the specifications adopted by means of delegated and implementing acts referred to in Articles 7 and 8;

(d) the economic operators concerned can make information available to competent authorities in accordance with Article 4;

(e) a unique electronic identifying link can be established between a shipment and the related data elements, including a structured reference to the eFTI platform where the data is made available, such as a unique reference identifier;

(f) data can be processed solely on the basis of authorised and authenticated access;

(g) all data processing is duly recorded in operation logs in order to allow, as a minimum, the identification of each distinct processing operation, the natural or legal person having made the operation and the sequencing of the operations on each individual data element; if an operation involves modifying or erasing an existing data element, the original data element shall be preserved;

(h) data can be archived and remain accessible for competent authorities in accordance with the relevant Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements;

(i) the operation logs referred to in point (g) of this paragraph are archived and remain accessible for competent authorities for auditing purposes for the period of time specified in the relevant Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements and, for monitoring purposes, for the periods of time referred to in Article 17;

(j) data is protected against corruption and theft;

(k) the data elements processed correspond to the eFTI common data set and to eFTI data subsets as established by the delegated acts referred to in Article 7, and can be processed in any of the official languages of the Union as provided for by the relevant Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements.

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down detailed specifications regarding the requirements set out in paragraph 1 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2). When adopting those specifications, the Commission shall:

(a) seek to ensure the interoperability of the eFTI platforms;

(b) take into account relevant existing technical solutions and standards;

(c) ensure that those specifications remain, to the largest extent possible, technologically neutral.

The first such implementing act shall cover all the elements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and shall be adopted no later than 21 August 2023.

Article 10

Requirements for eFTI service providers

eFTI service providers shall ensure that:

(a) data is processed only by authorised users and in accordance with clearly defined and assigned processing rights within the eFTI platform, in accordance with the relevant regulatory information requirements;

(b) data is stored and accessible in accordance with the Union legal acts and national law laying down the respective regulatory information requirements;

(c) competent authorities have immediate access to regulatory information concerning a freight transport operation processed by means of their eFTI platforms, free of any charges or fees;

(d) data is appropriately secured, including against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage.

SECTION 2

Certification

Article 11

Conformity assessment bodies

Article 12

Certification of eFTI platforms

Article 13

Certification of eFTI service providers

CHAPTER IV

DELEGATIONS OF POWER AND IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS

Article 14

Exercise of the delegation

Article 15

Committee procedure

CHAPTER V

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 16

Review

The Commission shall also assess possible initiatives with a view in particular to:

(a) establishing the obligation for economic operators to make available electronically regulatory information to competent authorities, in accordance with this Regulation;

(b) establishing further interoperability and interconnectivity between the eFTI environment and the different ICT systems and platforms used for recording and processing regulatory information as provided for in other Union transport law.

These assessments shall in particular cover the amendment of this Regulation and that of other relevant Union legal acts and shall be accompanied, where appropriate, by a legislative proposal.

Article 17

Monitoring

By 21 August 2027, and every five years thereafter, Member States shall provide the Commission, on the basis of the operation logs referred to in points (g) and (i) of Article 9(1), with the number of times competent authorities accessed and processed the regulatory information that was made available electronically by the economic operators concerned in accordance with Article 4.

That information shall be provided in respect of each year covered by the reporting period.

Article 18

Entry into force and application

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX I

PART A – Regulatory information requirements referred to in point (b) of Article 2(1)

List of delegated and implementing acts referred to in point (b) of Article 2(1):

(1) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1998 (⁸) laying down detailed measures for the implementation of the common basic standards on aviation security: Annex 6.3.2.6 (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f) and (g).

PART B – National law

The relevant provisions of national law requiring the provision of information identical, in whole or in part, to the information specified in points (a) and (b) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 are listed below.

Austria

(1) Federal Law Gazette No. 593/1995 (⁹): §17

(2) Federal Law Gazette II No. 399/1997 (¹⁰): §3

(3) Federal Law Gazette II No. 132/2007 (¹¹): §3(1) and §3(2)

(4) Federal Law Gazette II No. 207/2016 (¹²): §10(2)

(5) Federal Law Gazette II No. 395/2001 (¹³): §3(1)(2)(c)

(6) Ordinance of the Tyrolean Regional Government No. 1413/1998 (¹⁴): §4; and Ordinance of the Vorarlberg Regional Government No. 45/1998 (¹⁵): §4

(7) Ordinance of the Tyrolean Regional Government No. 464/1999 (¹⁶): §4; and Ordinance of the Salzburg Regional Government No. 68/1999 (¹⁷): §4

(8) Federal Law Gazette No. 1027/1994 (¹⁸): §2

(9) Federal Law Gazette II No. 192/2017 (¹⁹): §8

(10) Federal Law Gazette I No. 102/2002 (²⁰): §19(1)

(11) Federal Law Gazette No. 522/1973 (²¹) with regard to information requirements in accordance with Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of Annex A of the Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by road (ADR)

(12) Federal Law Gazette II No. 203/2019 (²²): §5 and §7(3)

(13) Federal Law Gazette No. 225/1985 (²³) with regard to information requirements in accordance with Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of the Regulation concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID), appearing as Appendix C to COTIF

(14) Federal Law Gazette III No. 67/2008 (²⁴) with regard to information requirements in accordance with Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of the Regulations annexed to the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways (ADN)

(15) Federal Law Gazette I No. 44/2016 (²⁵): §21a (2)

(16) Federal Law Gazette III No. 59/2003 (²⁶): Article 3(4)

Belgium

(1) Royal Decree of 2 November 2017 on the transport of dangerous goods by rail, excluding explosives and radioactive substances (²⁷): Article 13 and Part 5, Chapter 5.4 of Annex III

(2) Royal Decree of 12 July 2016 on the transport of explosives by road and rail (²⁸): Article 15 with regard to information requirements in accordance with Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of Annex A of the Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by road (ADR) and Chapter 5.4 of Part 5 of the Regulation concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Rail (RID), appearing as Appendix C to COTIF

(3) Act of 15 July 2013 on the transport of goods by road (²⁹): (a) Article 17 (b) Article 29(1), Article 29(2)(1)

(4) Ministerial Decree of 23 May 2014 implementing the Royal Decree of 22 May 2014 on the transport of goods by road (³⁰): Article 33, Article 34(1) and Article 35(1)