EEC says
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to hours delay
BRITAIN'S bid for a deferment of the eight-hour driving day—due to be implemented on January 1—has been turned down by the EEC Commission. And Britain took another slap in the face when, in an overall doubling of EEC haulage quotas, Germany and France got substantially bigger increases than the UK.
The shock news about the shorter driving day is contained in a letter from Brussels to the DoE. However, officials at the DoE hope that a new formula can be found in time for the Transport Ministers meeting due in December. "This is not the end of the road," a Department spokesman said this week.
The Commission's letter was apparently dispatched before the Transport Ministers met in Luxembourg last week. Though the meeting was largely a curtain raiser for December some important points about future EEC policy changes did emerge.
Our Brussels correspondent reports on the major subjects discussed :
Hours
The EEC Commission is the only body which can make proposals to the Council of Ministers and it has told Britain that it would not put forward the proposals for a two year deferment made by Dr Gilbert. A spokesman said that the Commission saw difficulties in the proposals.
Denmark and Ireland have joined Britain's request for a two year delay and Dr Gilbert is using the Referendum as an argument. The British Government did not know whether or not it would have to implement the EEC social regulations until June 6 when the Referendum result was known, the DoE maintains.
, But •this excuse was tersely rejected by an official Commission spokesman in Brussels this week. He told CM that the Referendum argument was "no reason at all" for a deferment.
Britain had known for three years that it would have to implement the EEC regulation. He pointed out that if Britain did not implement the eight hour law on January 1 it would be breaking Community law and be liable to prosecution at the European Court of Justice.
Political commentators in Brussels now see the hours issue as having far wider implications than its effect on transport. The whole question of Britain's acceptance of Commission decision is now raised. Observers say that it would be unprecedented for a Member state to go against a court ruling.
Quotas
Community policy is moving towards the abolition of bilateral quotas for intra community road transport and the Commission has proposed more than doubling the total EEC allocation of multilateral quotas—from 2285 in 1975 to 4726 in 1976. The UK may well block a decision on this issue because it would prefer—and indeed had expected—a proportional increase for all countries. The figures released by the Commission show that this is not the case.
Allocations for 1975 (with the proposed quotas for 1976 in brackets) are : Belgium, 265 (496); Denmark, 169 (298); Germany, 427 (994); France, 409 (826); Eire, 50 (79); Italy 319 (615); Luxembourg, 70 (142); Netherlands 382 (885); and UK, 272 (441).
British officials are annoyed at the way allocations have been worked out. Germany, which had not sought an increase, received well over twice its existing figure while only Ireland receives a smaller percentage increase than the UK. Commission officials point out that the figures were calculated on usage, though this does not seem to take account of the delays which occur in crossing the Channel as opposed to crossing a land frontier,
Weights
Without specifying metric or imperial tonnage, Britain's Dr Gilbert last week showed a marked preference for being knocked down by a 30 ton rather than a 40 ton lorry! The Minister for Transport's cynical comment emphasises the British position as far as weights and dimensions is concerned. "Heavier is messier when it comes to accidents," he said.
But that was as close as Britain would tread to making any kind of statement on this controversial issue. The Ministers did, however, agree to include weights and dimensions on the agenda for the next council meeting, planned for December 10-11. It is not clear whether any firm decision will be taken then.
Tachographs
It became clear last week that, contrary to earlier expectations, the British Government has not sought a deferment of the regulations concerning tachographs.
Despite Dr Gilbert's stated belief (CM August 15) that an indefinite delay was required, the Government has in fact not made any submission to the Commission on the subject. Instead it has indicated the severe problems it sees in sticking to the present enforceMent dates—January 1, 1976 for new vehicles and January 1, 1978 for existing vehicles and "asked for the Commission's advice" on what to do.
Commission officials have indicated that they sympathise with the British situation and are looking into it further.
Harmonisation
The harmonisation issue— under which common tax levels for commercial vehicles throughout Europe would be fixed—is to stay dormant during the economic depression, the Ministers decided.