EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (DEFINITION OF TREATIES) (INTERNATIONAL RAILWAY TARIFFS AGREEMENTS) ORDER 1980 (Hansard, 10 July 1980)

§ Lord MOWBRAY and STOURTON

My Lords, I beg to move that the draft European Communities (Definition of 1389 Treaties) (International Railway Tariffs Agreements) Order 1980, which was laid before this House on 19th June, be approved.

Although the detail of this matter is somewhat complicated, the essentials are fairly straightforward and I shall try to present them as simply as I can. When Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973 there was in existence an agreement between the six members of the European Coal and Steel Community, made in 1955, regulating the carriage of coal and steel products by rail within the Community. In addition to this original agreement there were two supplementary amending agreements on points of detail; and the requirements of the 1955 agreement were extended to traffic between the Community and Switzerland and Austria by separate agreements made in 1956 and 1957 respectively. The draft order which is before the House resolves the long-standing difficulty which the United Kingdom has had in conforming with the terms of these agreements.

This difficulty arises because the 1955 agreement assumed the existence of published internal rail tariffs—for which there was (and still is) no requirement in this Kingdom—and because it did not recognise the existence of sea crossings in its provisions relating to the calculation of charges, or indeed in any other way. In the period leading up to accession, Her Majesty's Government were led to believe that a substantial revision of the 1955 agreement was imminent and that the new version would contain provisions designed to accommodate our situation. It was therefore decided that the United Kingdom's inability to comply fully with the original agreement should not be a bar to our accession to the Communities. British Rail at that time carried internationally a very small quantity of steel traffic (only some 3,000 tonnes with the European Coal and Steel Community countries) and no coal.

After our accession it became clear that there was opposition from several members of the Community to any fundamental revision of the 1955 agreement which might result in higher charges for the transport of coal and steel products. For a long time proposals to incorporate in the agreement provisions dealing with our situation made no progress because they 1390 were linked with proposals to increase charges. However, while discussions on the necessary amendments which we required continued, although British Rail were unable to formulate tariffs which met the requirements of the agreement completely, with the aim of complying so far as possible with the spirit of the agreement they introduced, in April 1975, a tariff for the international carriage of steel products. As British Rail did not carry international coal traffic, similar action for coal was not required. The British Rail steel tariff was accepted informally by the other participating railways and the Commission agreed that it met the spirit of the 1955 agreement.

I mentioned at the outset that in 1956 and 1957 the six members of the then Community negotiated agreements with Switzerland and Austria extending the provisions of the 1955 agreement to traffic with those countries. Although those agreements preceded the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Community, unlike the 1955 agreement they were not automatically binding upon us when we joined the Community, and it was necessary to negotiate separate protocols providing for the accession of the new member states to the 1956 and 1957 agreements, to which we were committed by Article 4(2) of the Act of Accession. These protocols were eventually concluded in October 1974. They contained a requirement for the member states to notify the Swiss and Austrian Governments that the conditions necessary for their entry into force had been fulfilled in accordance with domestic law. This presented the difficulty for us that, for the reasons which I have explained, the provisions of the 1955 agreement were not wholly compatible with our law and practice relating to international rail traffic. The Government at the time delayed giving the required notification in the hope that a suitable revision of the 1955 agreement would first be negotiated.

However, a position was eventually reached in which it became clear that no further progress could be made towards such revision to meet our position until we had given the necessary notification under the Swiss and Austrian protocols to which we had been a signatory. It was contended that for this purpose reliance could be placed on the fact that the Government had secured substantial compliance 1391 with the requirements of the base agreements through the informal tariff introduced by British Rail in 1975. The British Railways Board in March 1978 gave a formal undertaking to continue to conform to the three agreements (that is, those of 1955, 1956 and 1957) "in the manner currently observed", on the understanding that the 1955 agreement was intended to be revised "to make the agreement compatible with the conditions under which the transport of European Coal and Steel Community goods takes place between the United Kingdom and the Community"; and Her Majesty's Government subsequently gave the required notification later in 1978.

Negotiations for a revision of the 1955 agreement then resumed, and the Fourth Supplementary Agreement, meeting the position of British Rail, was approved and formally signed by the member states of the Community meeting in council on 6th December last. This in effect formally legitimises the practice which British Rail have been following since 1975, by allowing them to calculate charges "by analogy" and by providing for a separate charge by sea crossing.

The British Railways Board, on 19th May, gave a new undertaking to comply with the original agreement as now amended, and the way is thus at last clear for these interrelated post-accession agreements to be specified as Community Treaties under the European Communities Act of 1972, so that their provisions may be relied upon directly by virtue of Section 2(1) of that Act. I hope the order will commend itself to your Lordships. My Lords, I beg to move.

Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 19th June be approved. —(Lord Mowbray and Stourton.)