Directive 2020/1057 of 15 July 2020 (O.J. L 249, 31.07.2020) deals with the posting of drivers in the road transport sector, establishing specific rules without formally amending Directive 96/71.
To see the text of the Directive: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?qid=1598174055846&uri=CELEX:32020L1057.
Concerned to ensure proper application of the rules on posting, particularly in case of “letter-box” companies (par. 4), the European legislator seeks to strike a balance between the social protection of drivers and the freedom to provide services. The sector’s “extreme mobility” then prompts him to restrict the concept of posting, since many journeys are not of long duration. He thus ensures that “balanced” rules are based on the existence of “a sufficient link between the driver and the service provided in the territory of a host Member State”: he then distinguishes between different types of operations according to the “degree of connection with the territory of the host Member State” (par. 9). In particular, he excludes “bilateral operations from or to the Member State of establishment” on the grounds that “the nature of the service is closely linked” to that State (par. 10). Indeed, he intends to avoid the application of the working conditions of the host State, deemed “disproportionate to the freedom to provide cross-border road transport services” (loc. cit.).
With regard to operations constituting a posting within the meaning of Directive 96/71, the legislator recalls the obligation of the Member States to ensure the applicability of the provisions referred to in Article 3, and to make them accessible in a transparent manner. Article 1 of Directive 2020/157 lays down these specific rules. In addition to a definition of the operations excluded from the concept of posting (§ 1 to 8), it limits the obligations that the State may impose on the operator by virtue of the implementing Directive 2014/67, allowing in particular the obligation of a “posting declaration” on the basis of a single form on the interface connected to the Internal Market Information System (‘IMI’) (regl. 1024/2012), a document of which the driver must carry a copy.
M. Fallon