Brit ousted from top EEC transport post
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BRITAIN is losing a key job in the transport directorate at the EEC C:ommission in Brussels with the early retirement in the near future of 57year-old John Steele.
After four-and-a-half years as director general of the department he was asked to quit as part of the policy of creating vacancies following the membership of Spain and Portugal on January 1.
There are two candidates for the job: an unnamed .Spaniard and Hans Raben, director-general of the aeronautics department of the Dutch Transport Ministry.
Raben will be the better choice from Britain's point of view as the Netherlands pursues the same goals of more liberalisation in international road transport.
"There will be no difference at all between me and him,Steele told CM.
Steele went to Brussels after 30 years in Whitehall including 13 years in the Ministry of Transport under Ernest Marples and John Boyd-Carpenter.
He will be leaving with an EEC golden handshake in the form of 60 per cent of his present salary and an allowance for the next three years with a drop after that.