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IRU warns of eastern threat
Page 8
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• The International Road Transport Union (IRU) has called on the European Union to protect hauliers from the effects of EU enlargement. it wants to ensure that the haulage market is not flooded with cut-price hauliers from former communist countries to the east.
The first tranche of eastern European countries—probably Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Estonia—are expected to join by the end of 2005. Membership will give these countries' citizens the right to work and provide services in any EU country The iFtil has told the European Commission: 'Practical measures will be needed to ensure that the political 'big bang' enlargement of the EU is not immediately followed by a damaging economic free-for-ail." The union fears that opening up the road haulage market to competition from the East too suddenly "could lead to severe disruption, and damage the EU's overall economic performance. Instead the IRU wants Brussels to establish a monitoring system to provide early warning of potentially harmful developments in the industry allowing EU institutions to respond promptly.
k also wants the EU to insist on strict criteria for eastern European hauliers who operate in the West, to "minimise unsustainable competitive practices". This includes refusing to grant new members temporary opt-outs from existing social regulations which would allow hauliers from the new EU countries to undercut those in existing member states.