Permits 'nonsense'
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THE "NONSENSICAL" system of limiting EEC haulage permits by national quotas is "encouraging a flourishing black market", a British MEP claimed at this month's session of the European Parliament, writes our Strasbourg correspondent.
David Harris (Conservative, Cornwall and Plymouth) told the assembly that he knew of a haulier who had been forced to pay £50 to obtain documentation from another haulier who had a surplus of permits.
He demanded to know when the EEC member states would finally agree to scrap the "ridiculous" system of quotas — and so respect the principles of the Treaty of Rome on the free movement of goods within the Common Market.
The reply from Belgian Foreign Minister Paul de Keersmaeker offered little encouragement. He said that, apart from approving small increases in the number of permits, transport ministers of the 10 member states "had not been able to agree on any further agreements."
The increases had amounted to a raising by five per cent of quota levels for eight member countries — and a "premium" for two member countries on the borders of the Common Market, Ireland and Greece, in the form of a 15 per cent increase.
The reply annoyed several British MEPs. Robert Moreland (Conservative, East Staffordshire) recalled that the Parliament as recently as last December had urged a large, general increase in quotas. The Parliament had been ignored, he said. And Winnie Ewing (Scottish Nationalist, Highlands and Islands) said that the transport ministers had evidently ignored the map of Europe when they gave an extra quota to Ireland and Greece.
Some of the remotest areas of the Common Market lay in Northern Scotland — an area bigger than either Denmark or Belgium, and Scottish hauliers, she said, felt they were being discriminated against.