Ismail Ertug, Member of the European Parliament for the Socialists and Democrats, Germany
Ismail Ertug is the rapporteur for one of the three dossiers in the mobility package and is now deputy chairman of the S&D group in Parliament.
The newly appointed Finnish parliamentarian, Hina Virkkonen, rapporteur on driving and rest times, and Katerina Kunina from the Czech Republic, in charge of publishing, had little time to prepare for the upcoming negotiations. But Ertug, the rapporteur for the coastal navigation file, is a “dinosaur” who knows the ins and outs of the package, said one EU official.
Ertug, a German citizen, represents a country that has stood strong against social dumping in the trucking sector. “Drivers drive for two to three months without returning home, without seeing their families… In such conditions, no one wants to do this job,” Ertug said in an interview.
This calls for urgent adoption of this package. “The people there, the companies, the drivers, and yes… the member states, they are all waiting for a solution,” he said.
Rosin Jeliazkov, Bulgarian Minister of Transport
As the poorest country in the European Union, Bulgaria has to pick and choose its political battles in Brussels. It’s all about the mobility package, with Transport Minister Rosen Zheliazkov saying the reform plans are “unfair, disproportionate and discriminatory” to truck drivers on his side of the bloc.
He has so far failed to block the beam, but that does not mean all is lost. Jeliazkov is moving to lead a coalition including Romania, Poland, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania to thwart the proposals if at all possible as they head to final inter-institutional talks.
