1.Regular services shall be open to all, subject, where appropriate, to compulsory reservation.
Such services shall be subject to authorisation in accordance with the provisions of Chapter III.
Regular services from a Member State to a third country and vice versa shall be subject to authorisation in accordance with the bilateral agreement between the Member State and the third country and, where appropriate, the transited Member State, as long as the necessary agreement between the Community and the third country concerned has not been concluded.
The regular nature of the service shall not be affected by any adjustment to the service operating conditions.
The organisation of parallel or temporary services, serving the same public as existing regular services, the non-serving of certain stops and the serving of additional stops on existing regular services shall be governed by the same rules as those applicable to existing regular services.
[X12. Special regular services shall include in particular:
(a) the carriage of workers between home and work;
(b) the carriage of school pupils and students to and from the educational institution.
The fact that a special service may be varied according to the needs of users shall not affect its classification as a regular service.
Special regular services shall not be subject to authorisation in accordance with Chapter III where they are covered by a contract concluded between the organiser and the carrier.]
3.Occasional services shall not require authorisation in accordance with Chapter III.
However, the organisation of parallel or temporary services comparable to existing regular services and serving the same public as the latter shall be subject to authorisation in accordance with the procedure laid down in Chapter III.
Occasional services shall not cease to be occasional services solely on the grounds that they are provided at certain intervals.
Occasional services may be provided by a group of carriers acting on behalf of the same contractor, and travellers may catch a connection en route, with a different carrier of the same group, on the territory of a Member State.
The Commission shall establish the procedures for the names of such carriers and the connection points en route to be communicated to the competent authorities of the Member States concerned. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 26(2).
4.Empty journeys by vehicles in connection with the transport operations referred to in the third subparagraph of paragraph 2, and in the first subparagraph of paragraph 3, shall likewise not require authorisation.
5.Own-account transport operations shall be exempt from any system of authorisation but shall be subject to a system of certificates.
The certificates shall be issued by the competent authorities of the Member State in which the vehicle is registered and shall be valid for the entire journey including transit.
The Commission shall establish the format of the certificates. Those measures, designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation by supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 26(2).
Editorial Information
X1 Substituted by Corrigendum to Regulation (EC) No 1073/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 on common rules for access to the international market for coach and bus services, and amending Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 (Official Journal of the European Union L 300 of 14 November 2009).