Whereas, over the years, both the national and the international transport of dangerous goods by road have significantly increased, adding to the dangers in the event of an accident;

Whereas all Member States except Ireland are Contracting Parties to the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR), the geographical scope of which extends beyond the Community and which lays down uniform rules for the safe international transport of dangerous goods by road; whereas it is consequently desirable that such rules be extended to cover national traffic in order to harmonize across the Community the conditions under which dangerous goods are transported by road;

Whereas no Community legislation embraces the full range of measures required to ensure the safe transport of dangerous goods and the relevant national measures vary from one Member State to another; whereas those divergences are an obstacle to the free provision of transport services and, moreover, to the free movement of vehicles and transport equipment; whereas in order to overcome that obstacle uniform rules applicable to all intra-Community transport should be defined;

Whereas an action of this nature must be carried out at Community level to ensure consistency with other Community legislation, to ensure a satisfactory degree of harmonization to facilitate the free movement of goods and services and to ensure a high level of safety for national and international transport operations;

Whereas the provisions of this Directive are without prejudice to the commitment entered into by the Community and its Member States, in accordance with the goals set under Agenda 21, Chapter 19, at the Unced conference of June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, to strive for the future harmonization of systems for the classification of dangerous substances;

Whereas no specific Community legislation yet governs the safety conditions under which biological agents and genetically modified micro-organisms, regulated under Council Directives 90/219/EEC4, 90/220/EEC5 and 90/679/EEC6, should be transported;

Whereas this Directive takes account of other Community policies in the fields of worker safety, vehicle construction and environmental protection;

Whereas the Member States remain free to regulate any operation for the transport of dangerous goods carried out within their territory by a vehicle not covered by the Directive regardless of where the vehicle is registered;

Whereas the Member States must be able to apply specific road-traffic regulations to the transport of dangerous goods within their territories;

Whereas the Member States must be able to maintain their quality-control requirements as regards certain national transport operations until the Commission reports to the Council on these matters;

Whereas the provisions of the ADR authorize the conclusion of agreements derogating therefrom, and whereas the large number of agreements concluded bilaterally between Member States impedes the free provisions of dangerous-goods transport services; whereas including the necessary provisions in the Annexes to this Directive should overcome the need for such derogations; whereas provision should be made for a transitional period during which the Member States may continue to apply existing agreements amongst themselves;

Whereas it is necessary to transpose into Community law the provisions of the ADR, including the requirements concerning the construction of vehicles transporting dangerous goods; whereas, in this context, provision should be made for a transitional period so that the Member States may temporarily maintain certain specific national provisions on construction requirements for nationally registered vehicles;

Whereas existing information procedures in the field of related national legislative proposals must be used in order to increase transparency for all economical operators;

Whereas as regards national transport, the Member States must retain the right to apply rules complying with the United Nations multimodal Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, in so far as the ADR is not yet harmonized with those rules, the purpose of which is to facilitate the inter-modal transport of dangerous goods;

Whereas the Member States must be able to regulate or prohibit the transport by road of certain dangerous goods within their territories, but only for reasons other than transport safety; whereas in this context the Member States may retain the right in the case of certain transports of very dangerous substances to impose the use of transport by rail or inland waterway or may maintain very specific packaging for certain very dangerous substances;

Whereas for the purposes of this Directive the Member States must be able to apply more stringent or more lenient rules to certain transport operations performed within their territories by means of vehicles registered there;

Whereas the harmonization of conditions should take account of specific national circumstances and therefore this Directive must be sufficiently flexible in providing the Member States with the possibility of granting certain derogations; whereas the application of new technological and industrial developments must not be impeded and provision must therefore be made for temporary derogations;

Whereas vehicles registered in non-member countries must be allowed to perform international transport within the territories of Member States if they comply with the ADR;

Whereas it must be possible to adapt this Directive rapidly to technical progress, in order to take account of new provisions incorporated in the ADR and to decide upon the application and implementation of emergency measures in the event of accidents or incidents; whereas a committee should be created for that purpose and a procedure should be established for close cooperation between the Member States and the Commission within that committee;

Whereas the Annexes to this Directive contain provisions covering the vocational training of certain drivers of vehicles transporting dangerous goods by road; whereas, therefore, Council Directive 89/684/EEC of 21 December 1994 on vocational training for certain drivers of vehicles carrying dangerous goods by road7 should be repealed,