Three-Year Rates Experiment for E.E.C.?
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DY a majority of 59 votes to 13, with 10 abstentions, the E.E.C. Economic and Social Committee has approved a resolution that the proposed forked rates system should be introduced only for a three-year experimental period and be confined to inter-Community road and rail traffic. After this the Council of Ministers would have to decide whether forked tariffs should or should not he continued.
This recommendation--a genuine attempt to provide a compromise between those who favour completely rigid organization of transport and those who want more freedom—has been made in the face of objections by the E.E.C. Commission, who feel it is certain to cause further considerable delay in introducing the action programme. The E.S.C. has approved the idea of a Community haulage licence quota (but only if it is experimental, for not more than four years) .and wants bilateral quotas to be continued: it suggests a total number of 1,000 licences in 1964 (Commission proposal: 750), disagrees with the Commission's allocation of these licences and is not in favour of reintroducing quotas for Benelux, which has already abolished them.
Fiscal harmonization should, says the E.S,C., cover not only vehicle taxation but also fuel tax (from the beginning of 1966), and it wants complete social equalization within two years from the end of the present tranSitional period and ask s that priority he given to harmonization of working hours and rest periods in international road haulage.