Goods wait while poison flows freely
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WHEN they are not uttering their esoteric brand of mumbojumbo, EEC officials can be plainly scathing. The European Commission's head of information services has sounded off about the absurd situation in which people and vehicles queue for rigorous checking at frontier posts while 2m to 3m tonnes of dangerous waste a year "are crossing the borders to be treated elsewhere — shamelessly and without anybody assuming the responsibility."
While "the Council rejects initiatives to encourage a greater measure of freedom in the movement of persons and goods within the European Community," he snarls, "barrels containing a deadly poison [dioxin] are apparently allowed to roll freely across these same borders as a result of the member states' resistance to accept a common European responsibility."
With a final note of despair he asks: "Will the Environment Council also reject the draft directive on the supervision and control of trans-frontier shipment of hazardous waste within the Community?"
The EEC is frequently accused of passing the buck. In this case the buck has not even started.