The package had already been agreed late last year. It gives truck drivers working abroad the right to return home every three to four weeks, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s news agency IAR reported.
The new rules also require trucks to return to their company’s headquarters every eight weeks. That move aims to stop firms registering businesses in so-called tax haven countries without actually operating there.
Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Malta, and Cyprus were against the new rules, saying that returning empty trucks hurts their hauliers financially and leaves a significant carbon footprint - at a time when the EU is striving to limit greenhouse gas emissions to help fight climate change.
Polish MEP Elżbieta Łukacijewska was cited by IAR as saying that the new rules are "an attempt to curb healthy competitiveness. We compete on quality and prices. In Central European countries these costs will be different than in Western European countries for a long time".
IAR also reported that Poland, along with other opposing countries, may appeal against the new package to the EU Court of Justice.
(jh/pk)
Source: IAR