Travel permits to go?
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THE PROPOSALS for abolishing EEC travel permits within the European Community (CM July 9) will be considered by the European Parliament Council of Ministers at a meeting in Athens in December. Tim Cobb reports.
James Moorhouse, Conservative spokesman on Transport in the European Parliament said: "Few things upset lorry drivers and transport operators in Britain more than having to get these permits or quotas. There have always been restrictions on how many permits should be allowed to operators, thus restricting the number of journeys they could make to the Continent" The new proposals will be a boost for any company wanting to expand its operations in Europe, he said. "Any paper work with restrictions must cause delays and add costs, apart from the frustrations of red tape."
Mr Moorhouse said he expected trouble from France and Germany trying to protect their railway operations. "British Rail may not like the proposals either, but I am satisfied that speeding up the increasing number of British lorries which want to carry goods in to Europe must be good news for the economy as well as the haulage industry," he said.
Commenting on the proposals the Freight Transport Association said: "The FTA policy is for liberalisation of road transport. Market forces should be the only influencing factor." The spokesman admitted that he was worried that an increase in Community quotas would lead to a drop in bilateral quotas.
He said he was doubtful that the abolition of the quota system would succeed.
• A further 2,000 Italian permits are available to British international hauliers this year. This was agreed at a meeting in London last week between officials of the Department of Transport with their opposite numbers from the Italian Transport Ministry. The meeting had been postponed from last month.
The general quota will be increased by 18 per cent from 11,000 to 13,000. The co-operation quota, which provides permits to British hauliers who back-load Italian vehicles, will also be raised. This quota, introduced in 1982 at a level of 500, will be doubled this year to 1,000.
The Italian delegation also proposed that classes of traffic for which non-quota permits are currently needed should now be permit-free.