Missing the Deadline: Commission Takes Bulgaria to Court Over Hired Vehicle Rules

The European Commission has decided to refer Bulgaria to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to incorporate European rules on hired commercial vehicles into its national legal system. The legal action targets Directive (EU) 2022/738, an EU law intended to make it easier for road transport companies to hire vehicles across national borders to meet seasonal demand or replace damaged fleets. According to officials in Brussels, Sofia has failed to convert almost all of the directive's provisions into domestic law. The court referral, registered under formal infringement case INFR(2023)0192, comes after repeated warning steps failed to produce the required national legislation.

For European haulage firms and logistics providers, the hired vehicles directive was created to cut administrative hurdles and lower operational costs by allowing operators to rent commercial transport registered in other EU countries. When a member state fails to translate an EU directive into its own statutes—a mandatory process known in Brussels as transposition—it creates a hole in the single market. Transport companies in Bulgaria or those delivering across its borders face continued legal uncertainty and restricted fleet flexibility. For consumers, unnecessary logistics hurdles in freight transport ultimately feed into higher prices for moved goods.

In the quiet procedural machinery of the EU, an infringement referral is the institutional equivalent of taking a member state to court after it agreed to a rule in the Council and then neglected to write it into domestic law. As guardian of the treaties, the European Commission is tasked with ensuring that EU laws are applied uniformly across all 27 member states. The legal process is intentionally long, progressing through formal letters and written warnings before reaching Luxembourg. Bringing a case to the judges usually indicates that years of diplomatic reminders have simply failed to move the needle in a national parliament.

The case now rests with the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union, where judges will assess the Commission's filing. If the court finds that Bulgaria breached its obligations under EU law, Sofia will be legally required to comply without delay. Continued non-compliance after a court ruling can lead to a second legal proceeding in which the Commission asks judges to impose heavy lump-sum penalties and daily fines until the missing national legislation is officially published.