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EC sticks to January 2006 smart-card launch
Page 8
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EC TRANSPORT Commissioner Jacques Barrot has raised the temperature in the long-running smart-card tacho saga by insisting that the regulations will come into force in January 2006.
And he has warned Commercial Motor that he'll take tough action against any European Union states that drag their heels on enforcing the new law.
Barrot's comments, made at a safety conference in Brussels, reflect the European Commission's desire to see smart-card units adopted on all new trucks across the whole of the EU without any further hold-ups, following the recent five-month extension of the previous 1 August 2005 deadline.
In an exclusive interview with CM, Barrot confirmed that an agreement has finally been struck between the Commission and the European Parliament over the implementation date and in his words: "There is nothing to stop the use of it.There really is nothing at all."
However, the Commissioner's rhetoric appears to have left UK transport representatives fairly unimpressed. James Hookham, deputy chief executive at the Freight Transport Association, says: -Nothing has changed. Even if there is an agreement between the Commission and the Euro pean Parliament we still have to wait until the next Council of European Transport Ministers in December, which will be chaired by the UK Transport Secretary Alistair Darling.
"And if the ministers accept a date [for implementationj it still has to be 'translated' and published in the EU's official Journal of Proceedings," he explains. -And I can't see that happening much before April."