9 EU COUNTRIES HAVE STARTED THEIR JOURNEY TO BE READY FOR eFTI REGULATION IMPLEMENTATION
Partners of eFTI4EU Project, funded by CEF
Prepared and sponsored by the Project: “eCMR in ND region”, Project ID: NDPTL Project 001-2021
The Freight Transport Information (eFTI) Regulation No 2020/1056 will be fully in force from the beginning of 2026. The previous term for competent authorities to be ready to receive freight information documents in a digital form moved from 2025 to the beginning of 2026. All EU countries have different backgrounds and systems which will have to be aligned in order the information in digital form could be exchanged. This will be the first step towards paperless, less polluting and transparent transport operations in Europe. 9 EU counties – Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Portugal, Austria have gathered to the consortium and submitted a proposal to Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and have been granted the EU contribution of 14 176 312 Euros for the Project “eFTI4EU”, while the whole Project budget makes more than 28 million euros.
The main aim of eFTI Regulation is to apply digital processes in transport and logistics sector within every EU member state. This is to reduce administrative costs, paperwork, improve efficiency and transparency while transporting goods. There is a need to support Governmental organisations to improve their capacity to learn how to foster changes and be ready to accept digital documents instead of printed ones. The main changes and challenges will happen in 2024 when European Commission will issue the Delegated Act on eFTI data set, Implementing Act on common rules for authorities, Implementing Act on eFTI platforms and service provider specifications and Delegated Act on rules for certification on eFTI platforms and service providers. By the beginning of 2026 all EU countries and their competent authorities will have to be ready to accept electronic freight transport information presented by economic operators.
The Project “eFTI4EU” will develop reference solutions for eFTI Gate for Partner countries’ competent authorities, which will be used for testing the electronic information exchange. The Project will be implemented by 9 EU countries lead by Estonian Ministry of Climate. Other contributing Partners are from Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Lithuania, Belgium as well as Estonia. Three observer countries are Netherlands, Spain and Ireland. A big part of the project is involving testing the solution in all transport modes involving stakeholders from competent authorities, maritime and road transport operators and also partner countries of Northern Dimension Partnership for Transport and Logistics (NDPTL) who is a valued Partner of the “eFTI4EU” Project. Moreover, this project will be a continues work of other projects such as FENIX, FEDeRATED, NDPTL eCMR, DIGINNO, and others.
“eFTI4EU” Project is important not only for the partner countries but for the whole EU. Implementing Acts and Delegated Acts of eFTI Regulation prepared by European Commission are making the rules! During the Project we will put these rules into practice and see how the data exchange on freight transport could work in real life! The Project Partners will also develop the Authorities’ roadmap as well as Strategy for the eFTI Gates”, says Eva Killar, the Project Lead from Estonian Ministry of Climate. Estonia has conducted an analyses in 2022 on eFTI Gate (previously called National Access Point) from the legal and also organizational point of view. The legal analysis described the current legal framework, including national law, EU law and international law in the context of the creation of the eFTI Gate and highlighted legal challenges of creating the eFTI Gate. Main challenges in legal perspective involve processing personal data, the e-identification and authentication of users etc. The analyses found that as eFTI service providers are required to ensure to competent authorities to have a direct access to the information about freight transport without any charges or fees, there is no business case for eFTI Gate for private sector at least in the beginning. That is why Estonia has chosen to establish eFTI Gate by Government.
It is already a common knowledge, that eFTI is a game changer in freight transportation in Europe and beyond. Event though, eFTI Regulation is not mandatory for the private sector, it is important that the economic operators would work in line with the preparation to connect to the eFTI environment as soon as it is launched. The above mentioned “eFTI4EU” Project funded from CEF is a good example how European Commission uses its funds to support Governments to implement their legal acts while private sector is still lacking these opportunities.