Kinnock plans to harmonise EU bans
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• EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock wants to regulate Sunday and public holiday driving bans to harmonise restrictions throughout Europe.
EU governments are introducing more and more divergent rules, which baffle international operators and leave drivers stranded at borders.
Kinnock's aides suggest lifting bans on some main routes which avoid urban areas, har monising HU traffic ban times or simplifying the present network of bans.
Confusion was caused by a ban in northern Spain earlier this year which was signed only in Basque. Another ban in Luxembourg was introduced at two days' notice. Bans in Italy and Spain are sometimes brought into effect only when heavy car traffic is forecast.
Driving bans in Europe fill a 50-page International Road Transport Union document which changes constantly. Bans differ regionally as well as nationally: for example, lorries are banned on All Saints Day only in Roman Catholic areas of Germany.
Kinnock will need to win the backing of national Governments for his proposed changes; he plans talks on this in June.
See bans feature, page 50.