§ 16. Mr. Chopeasked the Secretary of State for Transport what progress is being made towards agreeing a common European Economic Community shipping policy.
§ Mr. David MitchellThe Commission has proposed that the Council should adopt six draft legal instruments, which would liberalise the internal shipping market and permit member states to act in concert in countering protectionism and unfair competition from outside the Community. I hope that the Council will give a high priority to these proposals and that the Presidency will arrange for them to be discussed at an early date. I believe the time is ripe, if not overdue, for the Community to eliminate the protectionism that exists within the EC and, having set its own house in order, to use its collective economic and political 'muscle' to resist the illiberal shipping policies of third countries.