Twenty EEC transport decisions to be made
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ecc TRANSPORT Ministers will now be given two months to produce an effective ECC transport policy, or they will be taken by European Parliament to the EEC's Court of Justice in Luxumbourg.
Last week, Euro-MPs voted overwhelmingly in Strasbourg to take the Ministers to court for failing to do their duty (CM September 11).
A report by the German socialist MP Horst Seefeld, chairman of the Parliament's transport committee, listed 20 questions which the Ministers have failed to decide.
The most important are: harmonisation of national taxes on commercial vehicles; an agreement on lorry weights and sizes; and EEC financial aid to remove transport bottlenecks.
Speaking for socialist MPs, Rudi Arndt of Germany said the Ministers' "inefficiency" was a sign of an attitude dictated by "blind nationalism".
"This can only have devastating effects in a crisis period like the present," he added.
British MP James Moorhouse, speaking for Conservatives, blamed the expensive delays at national borders on the lack of agreement on fuel, weights and measures.
The vote was 157 in favour of action with only 12 against. MPs will not find the next stage of the battle so easy.
They claim that under the EEC treaty, member countries have a duty to establish a common transport policy.
The snag is that, although little has been done in 25 years, no time limit is set.
The question is whether the court will regard a 25-year delay as legally inadequate, writes our EEC correspondent.