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todgers looks to update EEC policy
Page 5
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FRS week Transport Minister rilliam Rodgers, president of le European Council of .ansport Ministers, will chair two-day Council meeting in membourg.
CM European corresponnt, Pat Kelly writes: While observers would gree that British Transport linister William Rodgers' xmonth presidency of the EC's Transport Council has Lllen flat, many of them ispect that his approach to Common Market's tranlort policy is the right one.
One of the more enthusias: Europeans in the Cabinet, r Rodgers is said to have been rset at the lack of response to requests for informal eetings between Ministers. His attempts to move the council away from technical detail towards more debate and global discussion haven't quite come off.
Those at the European Commission involved in formulating transport policy feel the Community should keep away from domestic matters and limit itself to international matters. And that is exactly what Mr Rodgers has been advocating all along.
The Commission would certainly not be averse to changing various aspects of transport policy if it could get the member states to agree. The different delegations want conflicting things and there has been no willingness in the past to move towards a compromise on some of the more contentious issues such as lorry weights and dimensions and the so-called social regulation on drivers' hours (543/69).
Mr Rodgers wanted to encourage something along the lines of a parliamentary debate during the council, but the only possible way was for Ministers to go into a restricted session with only advisers present. He was said to be hoping for an impetus to emerge from the Commission or the council to continually reconsider Common Market transport policy in the light of changing economic circumstances. He wanted to encourage discussion of principle rather than detail. But member states, encouraged by the French, are suspicious of Britain's informal approach.