Back in June 2021, the European Commission decided to refer Denmark to the Court of Justice for failing to lift its 25-hour maximum time limit on lorry parking. Ten months later, Denmark's Ministry of Foreign Affairs received official notice of the court action on March 8th. However, a court ruling issued just before Christmas has now dismissed the action of the European Commission.
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the case, since July 2018, Denmark has limited the period lorries can park in state-owned rest areas to a maximum of 25 hours.
The European Commission concluded in 2021 that the measure restricts the freedom to provide services as guaranteed by EU road transport legislation. As a result, the matter was referred to the European Court of Justice.
The authorities in Denmark nonetheless saw things differently. They claimed the 25-hour parking limit is needed to ensure orderly conditions at rest areas and prevent unlawful and hazardous parking. The Commission admitted that these goals are in the general interest, but added that other methods could be used to achieve them.
However, in September 2023, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice proposed that Denmark be acquitted of wrongdoing. Now the European Court of Justice itself has supported this verdict.
In the opinion of the European Court of Justice, the25-hour rule “is capable of having a specific effect on the exercise, by non-resident hauliers, of transport rights, in particular cabotage, conferred on them, since it prevents drivers from using motorway lay-bys for the purposes of compulsory rest periods 1 exceeding that period, and that that rule affects non-resident hauliers more than hauliers with an operating centre in Denmark and may therefore make it easier for their drivers to drive their lorries there.”
“The Commission has not however produced any objective data which would make it possible to establish that the alternative parking capacities provided by the private sector are, in the light of the volume of relevant traffic, inadequate to accommodate vehicles with a maximum permissible mass exceeding 3.5 tonnes for rest periods exceeding 25 hours. Without such objective data, the Court cannot establish, except on the basis of presumptions, that the 25-hour rule is in fact such as to impede cabotage activities carried out by providers established in other Member States,” added the European Court of Justice, in its verdict.
