Transport of dangerous goods by road

OBJECTIVE: to harmonise the rules applicable to the national and intra-Community carriage of dangerous goods in order to guarantee an acceptable level of safety and create a single market for these transport services in the Community. COMMUNITY MEASURE: Directive 94/55/EC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States with regard to the transport of dangerous goods by road. CONTENT: this directive transposes into Community law the European agreement on the international carriage of dangerous goods by road (ADR) to which all the Member States (with the exception of Ireland) are contracting parties, and makes provision for the following: . scope: the directive applies to the carriage of dangerous goods by road in the Community; it does not apply to the carriage of dangerous goods by vehicles belonging to or under the responsibility of the armed forces; . a ban on the carriage by road of certain goods listed in the annex (marginalia 2000 - 3999 and marginalia 10000 - 260000 of the ADR) unless certain conditions are complied with (packaging and labelling and design, equipment and state of repair of the vehicle); . a list of derogations, restrictions and exemptions to the application of the directive: * cases in which Member States may maintain their legislation in this sector on a provisional basis: domestic carriage of dangerous goods by vehicles registered on their territory until such time as the annexes to the directive are revised, * cases in which Member States may continue to regulate this sector: . reasons of national security or environmental protection, . highway code for dangerous goods, . quality assurance of companies, . vehicle design, solely for the centre of gravity of tanker lorries until 31 December 1998, . reference temperature for the carriage of liquefied gas suited to the climate zone etc.; * derogation in order to facilitate multimodal transport; * derogation on use of languages; * derogation for the national carriage of small quantities of certain dangerous goods; * derogation with a view to adapting to technical progress; * derogation for exceptional consignments to be carried by deadlines too short for the annexes to be revised; * derogation until 31 December 1998 for the benefit of certain bilateral or multilateral agreements; . specific provisions relating to vehicles registered in third countries; . a committee made up of representatives of the Member States to advise when the relevant legislation is being drafted; . certificates issued on the basis of Directive 89/684/EEC to be used until 31 December 1996, until 1 July 1997 or until 1 January 2000 at the latest, depending on the type of transport in question. DEADLINE FOR TRANSPOSITION: 1 January 1997.�