29. 12. 86 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 333/19
require a new type approval under the Smoke Directive
(72/306/EEC).
3.5.1. In this context, however, the Committee
invites the Commission and the Council to render it
absolutely clear that until 30 September 1990:
— the new emission control standards may be applied
by Member States only to those vehicles for which
a new smoke type approval is sought,
but that
— Member States must abstain from introducing
mandatory national emission control requirements
for all other vehicles during the transitional period,
prior to the entry into force of the provisions of the
proposed Directive.
4. External relations
The Committee asks the Commission to engage in
negotiations with other European countries to ensure
that the proposed harmonized emission control regu-
lations for diesel engines will not remain limited to the
EEC but will be accepted as far as possible at least by
all European countries outside the EEC.
Done at Brussels, 26 November 1986.
The Chairman
of the Economic and Social Committee
Alfons MARGOT
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on access to the market for the
carriage of goods transport by road between Member States
(86/C 333/07)
On 10 and 11 November 1986 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social
Committee, under Articles 75 and 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic
Community, on the abovementioned proposal.
In anticipation of the request for an opinion the ESC Bureau decided at its meeting of
22 October 1986 to instruct the Section for Transport and Communications to carry out the
necessary preparatory work; on 23 October 1986 the Section set up a Study Group and
appointed Mr L.J. Smith rapporteur.
Since the Commission proposal envisages inter alia a 40% increase in the Community quota
on 1 January 1987, an opinion by the Economic and Social Committee is urgently required,
at least on this aspect of the proposal. This is also reflected in the letter of 14 November
1986 in which the Council specially requested the Committee to deliver an interim opinion
on Article 2 of draft Regulation in November 1986. In addition, the Committee has to be
consulted in accordance with Article 75 of the Treaty before the Council can take its decision.
At its 241st plenary session (meeting of 26 November 1986), the ESC adopted the following
opinion by 87 votes to 19, with 14 abstentions:
1. General comments ment of 22 May 1985 in Case 13/83 (*) and from the
1.1. At its meeting of 14 November 1985 the Council
drew its conclusions from the European Court Judg- (!) OJ No C 144, 13. 6. 1986, p. 4.
No C 333/20 Official Journal of the European Communities 29. 12. 86
29 June 1985 on the development of the common trans-
port policy, conclusions which may be summarized as
follows:
— creation of a free market in transport with no quan-
titative restrictions by 1992 at the latest;
—- during the transitional period progressive adap-
tation of the bilateral quotas on a non-discriminat-
ory basis, coupled with increases in Community
quotas;
— elimination of distortions of competition during the
transitional period.
1.2. At its meeting of 30 June 1986 the Council was
even clearer on the future organization of the internal
road hautage market: 'in order to permit progressive
adjustment during the transitional period to the free
market to be created by 1992 at the latest, and to ensure
that transition to the new system is as smooth as
possible, the annual increase in the Community quota
must be higher than the present 15 %. As from 1987
the annual increase will therefore have to be brought
up to 40% (cumulative) until the introduction of the
final phase ...'
2.2. Under Article 2, paragraph 2 of the Commission
proposal, the total number of Community authoriza-
1.3. As regards conditions of competition the
Council decided: 'During the transitional period, work
on the elimination of distortions of competition should
be expedited'; in this connection it requested the Com-
mission 'to submit as soon as possible and by 1 January
1987 at the latest, a study on motor vehicle taxation,
excise duty on fuel and road tolls and the correlation
between them'.
1.4. The system of bilateral quotas is to be retained
during the transitional period, even though they are not
consistent with the Judgment of the Court of Justice of
the European Communities.
2. Specific comments on Article 2 of the draft Regu-
lation
2.1. To enable a picture to be formed of the scope of
the periodic increases in the Community authorizations,
these are summarized below in a table:
tions (11 475 for 1987) is to increase cumulatively by
40% per annum until 1991, so that the size of the
Country
Belgium
Denmark
Federal Republic of
Germany
Greece
France
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
United Kingdom
Portugal
Spain
1984
1
434
305
727
88
656
88
567
111
626
436
4 038
(58)
(436)
4 427
%
2
9,8
6,9
16,4
2,0
14,8
2,0
12,8
2,5
14,1
9,9
1.3
7,5
100
1985
Regul-
(EEC)
No
3621/84
(a)
3
570
469
914
131
801
147
721
179
785
551
5 268
(129)
(443}
5 840
%
4
9,8
8,0
15,7
2,2
13,7
2,5
12,4
3,1
13,4
9,4
100
1986
mission
Decision
85/476/-
EEC (b)
5
+ 87
+ 112
+ 120
+ 27
+ 89
+ 42
+ 100
+ 48
+ 107
+ 75
+ 803
6
657
581
1034
158
890
189
821
227
888
626
6 071(e)
673
1986
Regul-
ation
(EEC)
No
3677/85
(c)
7
707
625
1 112
170
957
204
883
245
955
673
6 531(f)
233
9,1
7 437
8
+ 50
+ 44
+ 78
+ 12
+ 67
+ 15
+ 62
+ 18
+ 63
+ 47
+ 456
+ 156
%
9
9,5
8,4
15,0
2,3
12,9
2,7
11,9
3,3
12,8
9,1
3,1
829
100
Decision
86/491/-
EEC (d)
10
+ 101
+ 114
+ 329
+ 60
+ 281
+ 54
+ 295
+ 60
+ 336
+ 87
+ 76
1 104
1 949
11
808
739
1 441
230
1238
258
1 178
305
1291
760
309
9 386
+ 26,2%
mission
Proposal
1987
12
976
929
1735
293
1488
341
1 424
404
1553
902
416
11475
+ 22,2%
(a) OJ No L 333, 21. 12. 1984, p. 61.
(b) OJ No L 283,24. 10. 1985, p. 16.
(c) OJ No L 354, 31. 12. 1985, p. 46.
(d) OJ No L 285, 8. 10. 1986, p. 29.
(e) Increase of 15,2% on the 1985 figure.
(f) Increase of 24 % on the 1985 figure, and of 7,6 % on the quotas fixed by Commission Decision 85/476/EEC of 27 September 1985.
29. 12. 86 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 333/21
Community quota could evolve as follows:
— 1988: 16 065 authorizations,
— 1989: 22 491 authorizations,
— 1990: 31 487 authorizations,
— 1991: 44 082 authorizations.
2.3. There is little point in speculating what percent-
age of intra-Community trade will be carried over the
coming years under Community or bilateral authoriza-
tions. If one assumes that the freedom to provide trans-
port services (cabotage) can be realized, as the Com-
mission considers, in a 'reasonable' period of approxi-
mately two years, one cannot but conclude that this
massive increase in capacity must have its effects on
the level of freight rates.
2.4. The Committee therefore shares the Com-
mission's view that a new market regime cannot be
established at the expense of workers employed in road
haulage and that, consequently, measures should be
adopted with all speed so that no harmful economic or
social consequences ensue.
2.5. Moreover, the Committee is at a loss to under-
stand why the Commission has not sought to lend this
position greater credibility by submitting along with
this package of liberalization measures a series of har-
monization measures so that the Council could decide
on both at the same time.
2.6. In view of the very short time available, the
Committee is not in a position to examine the Corn-
Done at Brussels, 26 November 1986.
mission proposal in its entirety. For the same reason it
has been unable to establish whether its reservations
about an automatic increase in quotas, regardless of
the actual state of the market, would be groundless
and whether this automatic increase would in fact be
compatible with the special features of the transport
sector.
2.7. It therefore refers in the first instance to its
opinion of 26 October 1983 (l) on the new method for
calculating the Community quota-—an opinion which
has lost none of its justification in the intervening
period.
2.8. For the reasons indicated above, the Committee
considers that the Community would suffer no harm if
the Commission proposal for a 40% increase, which
would in effect work out at only 22,2 %, were not put
into force precipitately on 1 January 1987; it would be
better to examine this proposal more thorougly before
it is implemented.
2.9. The Committee therefore proposes that such an
increase, over and above the increase of 26,2 % already
decided by the Commission for 1987, should not be
approved without first seeing what proposals the Com-
mission has to make on harmonization.
2.10. The Committee regards the present opinion as
a preliminary statement of its views on one aspect of
the Commission proposal. It will pursue its examination
of the full text expeditiously with a view to presenting
a comprehensive opinion at the beginning of 1987,
taking into account the parallel deliberations on the
freedom to provide services in transport.
(M OJ No C 358, 31. 12. 1983, p. 28.
The Chairman
of the Economic and Social Committee
Alfons MARGOT
^ o C ^ ^ A ^ ^hc^i]ourn^lotrh^Furon^nC^ornrnun^n^ ^ . 1 ^ ^
The following proposal for an amendment was rejected by the Community in the course of the discussions^
^ ^
replace the whole Section opinion by the following^
^Sub^ecttoathorough appraisal of the draft regulation on access to the market for the carriage of goods by
road between member States (CO^t(8^) ^9^ final), on which the Committee was consulted on..., the Section
notes that Article 2(2) of this proposal is, as regards the year 1987,in conformity with the Council'sDecision
o f ^ ^ u n e 198^ to increase each year, from 1987 to 1991,the number of Community quotas by at least ^ 0 ^ .
t t s t r e s ses tha t th i sdec i s ion i s in lmewi th theconc lus ionsof theCounc i lmee t ingof l^tl^ovember 198^,
whichfollowedonfrom the^udgementby theCour tof^us t iceof the^uropeanCommuni t i esof22^ tay
1 9 8 ^ ( C a s e l ^ 8 3 ) a n d from the ^vlilan European Council of 28 and 2 9 ^ u n e l 9 8 ^ a s far as the common
transport policy is concerned. These conclusions can be summarized as follows^
— creation ofafree market with no quantitative restrictions in the transport field by!992 at the latest
— progressive adaptation,onanon^discrimmatory basis, of bilateral quotas during the transitional period
and parallel development of the Community c^uota^
— elimination over the transitional period of distortions of competition.
The Section therefore calls on the Council to approve Article 2(2) of the above proposal before^lDecember
198^.
It also calls on the Council to examine a sama t t e r of pnon ty ,w i thav iew to taking an earlydecision,the
other elements of the proposal regulation.
It further recalls that o n l ^ l ^ o v e m b e r l 9 8 ^ t h e Council had also requested the Commission to present as
soon as possible a n d m a n y c a s e before l^anuary 1 9 8 7 a s t u d y o n t h e t a ^ a t i o n o f motor vehicles,excise
duties on fuels and roadtolls and the interrelations between them.
T h e v i e w s e t o u t i n t h e d o c u m e n t runs counter t o t h e r e a h z a t i o n o f a c o m m o n transport market,smce it
advocates retaining quantitative restrictions on access to road transport until competition conditions in the
transport sector are completely harmomzed.tn addition the time allowed to the ^SC is madmissibly short.
Votes for^37.Votes againsL7^.Abstentionsm7.
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy