More E.E.C. Technical Snags?
Page 55

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FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
'URTHER complications in the longdrawn-out attempts to achieve agreed ights and dimensions limits for vehicles the E.E.C. may possibly arise from the dings of a committee not directly ,ponsible for the E.E.C. Commission's vosals on this main subject of ndardization. As a supplement to the [ncipal weights and dimensions pi:6sals, which have already been drafted,
Commission is to seek from the E.C. Council a directive for unified hicle specifications, dealing with such itters as power-to-weight ratios. lying now decided to present these pplementary proposals in detail early
1963, the Commission, through its ricral transport department, recently pnized a meeting between governmt experts of the member states and was this meeting which brought to ht some new problems. As might be expected, the govern7 mt representatives found that there re often variations between the techal requirements specified by legislation
different member states, but the
important point was the realization that these differences in supplementary technical specifications could influence the determination of limits for vehicle weights and dimensions; it is also thought that these differences could even hinder the free movement of vehicles.
Bases of agreement were established at this first meeting of government experts and a working programme has been set up to try to reach full agreement as quickly as possible; their next meetings, however, are to be on November 26 and 27.
The original dissension between the Six, the refusal of France and Germany to consider the latest E.E.C. weights and dimensions proposals (The Commercial Motor, September 21) and now the possibility that further disagreements on the main proposals may arise through what was intended to be a set of purely supplementary regulations, suggests that a fully agreed set of standardized weights and 'dimensions is even less likely to be reached by January 1, 1963, than seemed possible a few months ago,