Catalan taxi drivers are determined that the central government will take advantage of the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) published on Thursday to shield the restrictions on the activity of rental cars with a driver, also known as VTC, and, therefore, on the Cabify, Uber and Bolt apps. So, on Wednesday they will take the Gran Via and Passeig de Grà cia and, if necessary, they will redouble the pressure and organize one protest after another until the day of the general elections.
The sentence offers several readings – the resolutions usually leave a wide margin for interpretation – and these days the analyzes are disparate. In any case, it seems clear that the court understands that the protection of the taxi does not justify the restrictions on VTCs, but it is also true that it considers that the care of the environment and the improvement of urban mobility do. “We have the opportunity to close this conflict if we rely on the sentence, and also not to leave any loopholes for those who want to put an end to the taxi”, explains Élite Taxi, the main association of taxi drivers in the metropolitan area.
“Both the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Territory already know that they must adopt ratios related to pollution, congestion, accidents – insists Élite Taxi -… In addition, the Ministry must already give powers to autonomous and councils so that they can delimit the offer of transport services with vehicles with up to nine seats for the reasons described by the CJEU”.
