Transport Safety and the Treaty of Rome

HL Deb 17 July 1997 vol 581 cc124-5WA

Lord Gainford

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether Article 36 of the Treaty of Rome has ever been invoked and, if so, in what circumstances, to enable the United Kingdom to act unilaterally in pursuit of improving transport safety.

Baroness Hayman

Article 36 provides an exception from the Treaty requirement that prevents one member state from restraining imports of goods from, or exports of goods to, another member state, by means of a national quantitative restriction or other measure which has an equivalent effect (e.g. a licensing system).

Article 36 may be based on various grounds one of which is "the protection of health and life of humans". It therefore covers transport safety. Whereas the UK may, in the future, wish to rely on this article in order to preserve transport safety, preliminary research indicates that it has not, so far, found it necessary to invoke it. A comprehensive search to find whether there is such an instance would incur a disproportionate cost.