Fuel squabble
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EEC officials are investigating a complaint that French Customs officers fined a coach company nearly £900 because one of its vehicles carried too much fuel in its tanks.
The incident occurred when the Belgian coach, owned by Amitour of Charleroi, tried to enter France at the start of a trip to Spain.
After a four-hour wait, the Customs demanded the money (64,000 Belgian francs) because there were 450 litres of fuel in the coach's tank instead of the 200 litres laid down by French regulations.
After a series of phone calls, a director of the coach company agreed under protest to pay the fine for the trip to proceed.
Belgian Socialist MP Ernest Glinne, who protested about the French action in a question to the EEC Commission, said: "Coach companies take on large quantities of fuel at the time of departure mainly order to save time on the journey.
"This petty action by the French authorities makes a nonsense of everything the EEC is supposed to stand for as regards free movement of people, goods and services."
A proposal to abolish all limits on the quantity of fuel carried in petrol tanks has been tabled by the EEC Commission.