Participated by all partners of the project, with the aim to present the project, discuss the methodology of the research and schedule the next activities in the project. The meeting was held online via zoom platform with the presents of the project beneficiary and project partner representatives.

The meeting started with the welcoming words of the project beneficiary. After welcoming the attendees to the project, Francesco Marcelli, on behalf of his organization, FAST, proceeded to present the project partners individually.

The expert project coordinator, proceeded to highlight some aspects of the project, pointing out that it addresses a topic of undeniable relevance in the transnational framework: The posting of road transport professionals; of truck drivers and stressing that the objective pursued with it was: To contribute to the implementation of the key principles in the posting of workers; analysing the applications of the Directives on the posting of workers and the influence of the new law in the sector, and the processes of displacement of transport workers, focusing on truck drivers. He made a brief introduction on the problems raised by the entry into force of the Mobility Pact, which has incorporated changes that impact on international truck drivers, referring, in particular, to:

➢ Remuneration for work performed in the territory of another Member State other than their own that is paid on a business travel basis (per diem), which is not subject to tax and social security contributions, so the pension of retired drivers who worked on the basis of their net salary will be low.

➢ And the change in the cabotage and cross-trade rules, being necessary to use the PW publication rules.

He pointed out that this rule is dangerous for transport companies sending posted workers from Central and Eastern European countries, due to increased labor costs; and that it may lead to increased costs for transport services, which will result in reduced competitiveness of transport companies from sending countries. These rules were supported by western EU states that are mostly receiving countries. Finally, he highlighted how the heterogeneity of the partners (unions and employers) and their knowledge of the specific characteristics of the transport sector could provide the development of the project with different perspectives for our analysis of problems and the search for solutions to these problems.

Regarding the planned activities, he pointed out that the project has a duration of 18 months; from September 1, 2022, and he specified them as follows:

❑ Launch meeting, online on November 21, 2022; in which it was intended:

– Initiate project activities and explain the scope of the project.

 – Plan the work to be carried out during the development of the project

❑ RESEARCH PHASE, which will have the following objectives:

 designed to verify the basic knowledge of them by workers and employers; to make it possible to establish good practices in their application; to spread knowledge of them and make them easy to understand in a coherent way among all member countries.

❑ Online EXPERT WORK SESSIONS.

Several expert meetings are planned, on dates to be determined:

– 2 Meetings to analyse the National Reports and the Comparative Report

– 2 Meetings to discuss the realization of the article scientific, infographics and vodcasts.

– 1 Project follow-up meeting

❑ DISCUSSION WORKSHOP, Face-to-Face. 2 days, Spain; with the participation of all the partners of the Project

Several rounds of interventions were opened on the activities foreseen in the project, some doubts were raised and various suggestions on these developments were made by almost all the partners present in the project. From these discussions, the following aspects of the research phase were concluded:

About the data collection questionnaire

On the preparation of the National Report

On the timing of the research phase

Other issues

At the end, after the summary of the meeting, the project beneficiary thanked everyone and wished all the best to the participants.