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AGREEMENT

between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Spain on the international combined road/rail carriage of goods

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN,

DESIRING to promote the development of international road/rail transport, and in particular to facilitate the organization and operation thereof;

WHEREAS the use of the road/rail method for the international carriage of goods by road is economically advantageous over long distances; whereas it reduces road traffic and thus enhances road safety; whereas at the same time it contributes to the protection of the environment and energy saving;

WHEREAS certain types of combined road/rail carriage of goods have been liberalized, as far as the European Economic Community is concerned, by Council Directive 75/130/EEC of 17 February 1975 on the establishment of common rules for certain types of combined transport of goods between Member States, as last amended by Directive 82/603/EEC;

WHEREAS those rules aim at increasing the attraction of combined road/rail carriage by freeing it from quantitative restrictions and exempting it from the application of certain administrative provisions;

HAVE DECIDED to establish uniform rules for the international combined road/rail carriage of goods and to this end have designated as their Plenipotentiaries:

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES:

THE GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN:

WHO, having exchanged their Full Powers, found in good and due form,

HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION I

Scope and definitions

Article 1

This Agreement shall apply:

(a) to the international combined road/rail carriage of goods carried out between the territories of the two Contracting Parties using vehicles registered in one of the Contracting Parties;

(b) to journeys by unladen vehicles in connection with the transport operations referred to in point (a).

Article 2

1. For the purposes of this Agreement:

(a) combined road/rail carriage means carriage of goods by road where the lorry, trailer, semi-trailer (with or without tractive unit), swap body and container of 20 feet or more are transported by rail between the nearest suitable rail loading station to the point of loading and the nearest suitable rail unloading station to the point of unloading; (b) swap body means the part of a road vehicle on which it is intended that the load shall be placed and which may be detached from the vehicle and re-incorporated therein.

2. Transport operations using the railway principally to overcome a natural obstacle shall not be considered to be combined road/rail carriage for the purposes of this Agreement.

SECTION II

Liberalization measures

Article 3

1. The Contracting Parties shall free the combined transport referred to in Article 1 from all quota and authorization restrictions from the date of entry into force of this Agreement.

2. Terminal road haulage operations on the territory of each Contracting Party, effected by means of vehicles used for combined road/rail carriage to or from the nearest suitable rail loading or unloading station from the point of loading or unloading of the goods, shall be freed by each of the Contracting Parties from all quantitative restrictions in accordance with the following criteria:

- international road haulage operations shall be freed from all quota or authorization systems,

- internal road haulage operations shall be freed from all quantitative restrictions, but may remain subject to an authorization system, without prejudice, however, to any wider liberalization measures provided for, where appropriate, in each of the Contracting Parties.

SECTION III

Control document

Article 4

1. The liberalization of combined carriage for hire or reward shall be subject to the submission by the operator of a transport document which sets out at least the following particulars:

- name and address of the consignor,

- nature and weight of the goods,

- place and date of acceptance of the goods for carriage,

- place to which the goods are to be delivered,

- route to be taken, or distance to be travelled, in so far as these factors justify a transport rate different to that normally applicable,

- frontier crossing points.

2. The documents provided for in paragraph 1 shall also specify the rail loading and unloading stations. These details shall be recorded before the transport operation is carried out and shall be confirmed by means of a stamp affixed by the rail authorities at the stations concerned when that part of the journey carried out by rail has been completed.

3. Where a trailer or semi-trailer, belonging to an undertaking engaged in own-account combined transport, is hauled on terminal delivery journeys by a tractive unit belonging to an undertaking engaged in transport for hire or reward, the transport operation so effected shall be exempt from submission of the document provided for in paragraph 1; however, another document shall be provided giving evidence of the journey covered by rail.

Article 5

1. Where the frontier is crossed by road before the rail journey, the Contracting Parties may require the operator to show that the rail authorities or a body authorized by them have made a reservation for the transport by rail of the tractive unit, lorry, trailer, semi-trailer, or the swap bodies thereof, and of the container of 20 feet or more.

2. The Contracting Parties may authorize the inspection authorities to require the rail transport document to be submitted on completion of the rail section of the combined road/rail journey.

Article 6

Without prejudice to Article 3, this Agreement shall not modify the conditions of admission to the transport haulage profession or of access to the transport market which are in force in each of the Contracting Parties, in particular those concerned with the use of a tractive unit to bring or take back, on a journey made on the territory of each of the Contracting Parties, a vehicle transported by means of combined road/rail carriage or a swap body.

In particular, this Agreement shall not modify the conditions concerning the use of a bare chassis in the case of combined road/rail carriage effected by a transport vehicle or of swap bodies or containers.

SECTION IV

Transitional measures

Article 7

The Contracting Parties hereby agree that the liberalization measures provided for in Article 3 shall apply to trailers and semi-trailers once the Spanish railways have the facilities and rolling stock required to carry them on the Spanish railway network but not later than 1 July 1985. SECTION V

General and final provisions

Article 8

1. The competent authorities of the Contracting Parties shall adopt the measures required to implement this Agreement.

Such measures shall cover at least:

- the liberalization process,

- the organization, procedure and means of control,

- the designation of the competent authorities.

2. The measures adopted by one Contracting Party pursuant to paragraph 1 shall be communicated to the other Contracting Party.

Article 9

The competent authorities of the Contracting Parties shall ensure that operators comply with those provisions concerning them adopted under this Agreement.

They shall inform each other, in accordance with their respective laws, of the infringements committed in their territory of the said provisions by operators established in the territory of the other Contracting Party and, where appropriate, of any penalty imposed.

Article 10

Where the operation of this Agreement or of the measures adopted pursuant to Article 8 so requires, either of the Contracting Parties may request that a meeting of the parties to the Agreement be convened with a view to examining jointly the problems encountered and any solutions proposed.

Article 11

This Agreement shall apply, on the one hand, to the territories in which the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community is applied and under the conditions laid down in that Treaty and, on the other hand, to the territory of the Kingdom of Spain.

Article 12

1. This Agreement shall be approved or ratified by the Contracting Parties in accordance with their own procedures.

2. This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the first month following the date on which the Contracting Parties are notified of the accomplishment of approval or of ratification.

Article 13

1. This Agreement is concluded for a period of five years from its entry into force.

2. Each Contracting Party may denounce this Agreement, by means of one year's notice, with effect on 1 January, by notifying the other Contracting Party.

Article 14

This Agreement shall be drawn up in a single original in French and Spanish, the texts in each language being equally authentic.

In witness thereof, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries have signed this Agreement.

Done at Brussels, 14 December 1984.

1.2 // On behalf of the Council of the European Communities // For the Government of Spain

FINAL ACT

The Representatives

of the Council of the European Communities,

of the Government of Spain,

meeting in Brussels, on this fourteenth day of December in the year one thousand nine hundred and eighty-four for the signature of the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Kingdom of Spain on the international combined road/rail carriage of goods,

have at the time of signature of this Agreement taken note of and approved the following declaration:

'Both Contracting Parties hereby declare that, in view of the special technical problems involved in transfrontier transport operations, a joint effort is needed to resolve, at the technical level, problems arising from the development of combined transport.

They consider that the rail loading and unloading stations for vehicles used in combined transport in the territory of both Contracting Parties are existing rail stations and any rail stations which might be built during the period in which this Agreement applies.

They also declare that this Agreement will be automatically superseded by the Act of Accession of the Kingdom of Spain to the European Economic Community on the day on which it takes effect.'

Done at Brussels, 14 December 1984.

1.2 // On behalf of the Council the European Communities // For the Government of Spain