et on with b EEC told
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has told the EEC to
ith the job of getting na nal movements right re i interferes with the esti transport arrangeIs
o member states.
Ho se of Lords Select mit ee report published Ve nesday advises the to I ok at the railways of ce d Germany, which, it e holding up the am nt of freight on the me t.
e committee, under rm n Viscount Simon, tha the insistence of both Fr nch and German rn dents on quotas for indi nal haulage permits is rom massive losses b their railways.
Ld i evidence to the cornee, Transport Minister am Rodgers accuses the of dealing with "trivia" no getting down to the na onal issues during. its 20 ears of operation.
he Commission has been ssi ely concerned with L a d has spent too much in patching up, national rel ," said Mr Rodgers.
a ded that because of on inual changing of the po ministers of the Nine as very little con y.
t h admitted that when it t negotiations, Britain re arded as a difficult rn r, unwilling to accept rnunity obligations. 'h reas we in the UK are gh to be resistant to harsa ion, the truth is that almost all members are busy resisting any course that could have untoward consequences for them," said Mr Rodgers.
• And he warned that there was little chance of any liberalisation of European transport while tax restraints and quotas still existed, and that went against the fundamental principles of the Treaty of Rome.
Mr Rodgers agreed with Lord Thomas that it was a question of improving the rail services in terms of punctuality and delivery.
Viscount Simon commented that he was unable to understand the attitude of British trade unions to the introduction of the tachograph — he asked if the attitude was purely emotional and added that he thought there was a great deal of "muddled thinking" on the subject.
Mr Rodgers said that if the tacho was the law of the land, then British drivers would argue drivers abroad were ignoring it.
"All the arguments are legitimate and 1 would not argue that some of the resistance to the tachograph is not because it would catch drivers out when breaking the law, but that it will reveal that they have dropped off for an hour or two to visit their girlfriends, and that will be on record," said Mr Rodgers.
He said that operators found the drivers' hours regulations extremely complicated and found difficulty in following them. He did not think that the legislation applying to passenger traffic was relevant to community purposes. It was expensive and would not lead to more efficiency.
Viscount Simon added that there was little hope of any progress while the massive foreign rail losses continued, and he called on the EEC to co-operate more with countries beyond the Nine, including the United Nations, and the European Council of Transport Ministers.