MEPs slam Austrian link
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BRITISH European MPs have given a cool reception to suggestions that the Common Market may pour as much as £22m into new motorway construction in Austria.
They argued in the European Parliament that British hauliers would gain little benefit from the plan to support a link between Innkreis and Pyhrn.
The Common Market is considering this first scheme to support a non-Community transport link because of the weight of EEC traffic in transit through Austria, especially since the accession of Greece to the Common Market in January.
When the European Parliament discussed the idea at its June session in Strasbourg, MEP Alan Tyrell (Conservative, East London) said British hauliers would get little use from the new link "because Germany will not give us permits to cross Germany itself".
As for an alternative route to Austria and beyond through France, the French authorities were also refusing all but a "pitifully" small number of permits to British hauliers.
In a number of debates on transport matters, British MEP's emphasised the problems of British hauliers.