The European Commission will not withdraw its proposal to revise Directive 92/106/EEC on combined transport. This was announced on 4 September 2026 by the International Union for Road-Rail Combined Transport (UIRR), and should reopen a dossier that had left rail, intermodal and freight forwarding operators across the EU in limbo for months. The text, presented by the Commission on 7 November 2023 as part of the Greening Freight Transport package, aims to replace the 1992 regulatory framework with broader and more digitalised support for intermodal transport.
The Directive currently in force grants access to incentives for operations based mainly on a rail leg, inland waterways or short-sea shipping, with initial and final road legs. The proposed revision would replace this approach with a criterion based on external costs, requiring the intermodal operation to deliver a reduction of at least 40% compared with an entirely road-based transport operation between the same points of origin and destination. Compliance would be verified through eFTI digital platforms, which would automatically calculate whether the operation qualifies for the support scheme on the basis of the values set out in the Handbook on the external costs of transport.
The path of the file has been complex and full of obstacles. On 22 October 2025, when adopting the 2026 work programme, the College of Commissioners proposed withdrawing the initiative, citing the lack of agreement between the co-legislators. The European Parliament, however, rejected this option at the end of January 2026, but since then the Commission has never formalised a definitive position on how to proceed, leaving the sector in a state of uncertainty for a further seven months.
During this period, several positions were taken by the stakeholders concerned. On 15 April 2026, six associations, including Cefic, BusinessEurope, Clecat, the European Chemical Transport Association (Ecta), the European Shippers’ Council (Esc) and UIRR itself, published a joint note calling for a swift revision of the Directive, with clearer eligibility criteria and greater harmonisation between Member States. On 4 June 2026, a second group, made up of six rail and intermodal associations, Erfa, UIRR, Cer, Uip, Aerrl and Unife, proposed an intermediate solution: to keep the 1992 definition in force even if the revision were withdrawn, postpone the issue of the new definition for five years and continue work on the less controversial aspects of the file, from the digitalisation of eligibility evidence to exemptions from traffic bans for the road legs of combined transport. Meanwhile, combined transport is showing signs of strain: in the first quarter of 2026, volumes fell by 4.92% year on year, according to data released by UIRR itself.
The technical issue that has blocked the negotiations remains the definition of external costs. The IRU, which represents road transport, warned as early as 2023 that the new 40% criterion risked being excessively complex and burdensome, discouraging the use of combined transport rather than promoting it. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (Acea) has called for a calculation method that is comparable across the different modes, to avoid environmental benefits being attributed automatically to a single mode of transport. BusinessEurope has also urged that the Handbook on the external costs of transport be updated before the Directive enters into force, so that it includes a broader list of environmental, social and economic costs for all modes.
The file is also linked to a second regulatory instrument that is already in force, Regulation (EU) 2024/1679 on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, Ten-T, which has applied since 18 July 2024. The regulation requires Member States to assess, by 19 July 2027, whether the transhipment capacity available on their territory is adequate for future demand, and to draw up, by 19 July 2028, an action plan for the development of the multimodal terminal network where shortcomings are identified.
Antonio Illariuzzi
