A group of united European travel industry operators has requested the urgent undertaking of the EU to make a decision on the processing and publication of the 12-day driving derogation in its September edition of the EU Official Journal.

The decision, which would reinstate the mandatory break period for coach drivers after working for 12 straight days, has already been postponed once by the EU. The change is seen by many as a boost for tourism operators as the existing legislation requires an enforced break after just six days, something which provides considerable inconvenience to coach travel firms.

The delay in the formal decision making has been blamed by hold-ups within the linguistics department as it seeks to clarify the wording of the long awaited law change.

The latest calls for a speeding up of the decision making process come jointly from the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations (ECTAA, the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) and the International Road Transport Union (IRU). The tripartite organisations insist on the new decision being made to enable drivers, customers and operators to benefit from the derogation by the spring travel period next year. Already the decision has been delayed from the start of 2010 to Easter.

ETOA director Tom Jenkins said the move to the 6 day derogation period in 2007, along with the ongoing delays to the reversal, have been a major financial loss for operators who book and plan coach tours months in advance and are still unable to confirm the conditions which staff will be working under.

The move to the 12-day derogation period was formally adopted earlier this year by the European Parliament, yet bureaucratic delays have meant the Swedish Presidency has still not found the opportunity to have agreement formally adopted. To make law, the decision must be published in a EU text, then a six month wait before any provision can be used, the source of much of the frustration by advocates.