Transport Council (Hansard, 21 October 1993)

§ Mr. MacGregor

The Transport Council met in Brussels on 28 September. My noble Friend Lord Caithness and I represented the United Kingdom.Political agreement was reached on the text of the directive on road haulage taxation and charging, and the regulation on road haulage cabotage to give effect to the conclusions reached at the Council in June. The Council reached agreement on the regulation amending the regulation on a code of conduct for computer reservation systems; formal adoption will follow shortly. The regulation deals with a range of practical and competition issues which have become apparent since the original regulation was adopted. In particular it aims to remove the scope for anti-competitive behaviour which might result if an airline were allowed to run a commercially available CRS system in close conjunction with its own in-house computer. The Council discussed the Commission's communication on road safety. We stressed the considerable success the United Kingdom had achieved by action at local and national level and argued that Community action should be directed at improving vehicle safety standards rather than at harmonisation of speed and blood alcohol limits which took no account of differing road conditions and national attitudes. The Council agreed to a general discussion of relations with Switzerland at the October General Affairs Council prior to consideration of negotiating mandates on air and road transport at the Transport Council in November. In view of the significant restructuring taking place in some member states the Council agreed that a debate on community rail policy should be held at the Transport Council in November. We explained that the reforms in the United Kingdom would separate rail infrastructure from services, and encourage the involvement of the private sector. We stressed the importance of implementation of the 1991 access directive by all member states, which the United Kingdom has implemented, and asked the Commission to examine the directive to consider how it would fit with the new industry structures. The Council reached political agreement on slight modifications to the guidelines for Community trans-European networks for combined transport, roads and inland waterways agreed at the Council in June. Formal adoption awaits the opinion of the European Parliament.

There were no votes taken.