Big permits attack
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HE UNAVAILABILITY of international haulage permits in the Cornion Market came under fierce attack at this month's session of the in'opean Parliament, reports our Strasbourg correspondent.
"Iniquitous", "lamentable" id "crazy" were among the ascriptions given by British IEPs to the system by which ily a tiny number of EEC 3rmits are available to hauliers, hile member states prefer to ing to bilateral agreements on "Road hauliers are hungry for armits — and they view the EC permits with utter contempt, hen they find there is not the ightest chance of getting one," lid East London Conservative ember Alan Tyrrell.
For years, both the Parliament Id the Commission have anted to make EEC permits ore widely available and lase-out permits granted in lateral deals between member ates.
The sticking point has always >me when the proposals go for ial approval to the Council of .ansport Ministers, representg the Member States.
William Newton Dunn, Conservative Member for Lincolnshire, said he had received numerous letters from hauliers in his constituency who would like to go into international freight haulage.
"They are confronted by this appalling system of quotas on permits under which bureaucrats are restricting free competition.
"If a haulier wants to go into the international business and he has the resources, and he is running a viable business — he should be allowed to do it.
"If he can offer lower prices and freight rates, this will be to the ultimate benefit of consumers."
Another Conservative, Robert Moreland (East Staffs), said the annual meetings of the Transport Ministers at which the quota were allocated were less like a meeting of responsible men, more like a Marx Brothers film.
At the last meeting, he alleged, the ministers had been forced to concoct an anaemic piece of legislation on railways, so as to compensate the West German transport minister for some miniscule increase in quotas.
Mr Tyrrell gave notice that the discussion taking place at the Parliament was positively the last in which he would agree to endorse the whole system.
The debate, he said, "is merely an exercise in window dressing, designed to disguise the lamentable failure of the Transport Ministers to resolve the matter." The Parliament voted through a resolution protesting strongly that the Transport Ministers had decided not to raise the EEC quota for permits during 1981 "taking no account of the Commission's proposals and the Parliament's opinion."
For 1982, the Commission is proposing 720 extra EEC permits — an increase of just under 20 per cent on 1980 levels (the Community quota was not raised in 1981).