Shura Council to review unified GCC road transport law for fairness and safety

TDT | Manama

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Shura Council members will consider on Sunday a report urging approval of Decree-Law No. 35 of 2025, which adopts a unified GCC framework for international road transport. The Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee said it reviewed the lower chamber’s decision and its papers, alongside the view of the Shura Council’s Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee, which found the decree-law sound in constitutional and legal terms.

The committee also examined a separate legal opinion memorandum and discussed the text with two legal advisers before recommending approval.

Delay

In its reasoning, the committee pointed to a delay in bringing the GCC framework into force after the planned start date had already passed.

It said the delay risked leaving a gap in the rules that could disrupt cross-border road transport, particularly as Saudi Arabia has already begun applying the unified provisions.

The committee said Bahrain needed to bring its procedures into line to protect Bahraini carriers and ensure equal terms, while also supporting trade and raising road safety through shared technical rules and stricter controls on vehicles and transport operations.

The decree-law has six articles.

Regulation It approves the attached unified regulation, defines the ‘competent authority’ as the body to be designated by decree, and, for the purposes of applying the regulation, sets the rate at one Bahraini dinar to ten riyals. It also sets out how appeals can be made against decisions issued under the regulation, its executive rules and related decisions, keeps existing decisions in force until the executive rules are issued, and includes an implementing article. The attached regulation contains 25 articles. It opens with definitions, aims and scope.

It then deals with operating cards and covers return trips, entry without a load, transport by unregistered vehicles, and domestic transport of passengers and goods.

Requirements

It also sets technical requirements for vehicles, rules on carrying goods and on exceptional loads, and duties placed on carriers and drivers, including limits on how long a vehicle may remain within a member state and rules on weights and dimensions.

Later articles deal with violations and administrative penalties, repeat offences and how fines are paid.

The final provisions cover appeals, fees and taxes, judicial enforcement powers, and the mechanism for issuing the executive rules.

The committee also explained why the measure was issued as a decree-law under Article 38 of the Constitution.

Recess

It said it was issued on 19 August 2025 during the recess, after the close of the third session of the sixth legislative term and before the start of the fourth session, and was submitted to both the Shura Council and the Council of Representatives on 24 August 2025 for review.

It said the conditions in Article 38 were met, including the need for urgent action, and that the decree-law satisfied the required legal and procedural tests.