31 January – 1 February Transport informal

Date: 06/02/1997

TRANSPORT ministers urged the European Commission to push ahead with moves to institutionalise air transport safety. “We have only just begun to scratch the surface ... The Joint Aviation Authority remains a weak sibling of its American counterpart. Decision-making must be streamlined,” said Dutch Transport Minister Annemarie Jorritsma-Lebbink. Ministers also echoed the Commission's view that improvements had to be made to air traffic management, concluding that a joint approach beyond the EU's borders was the correct way forward. Claiming that serious progress could be made during the Dutch presidency, Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said that in the coming weeks he would be bringing forward a proposal on 'ramp checks' to ensure the safety of third-country airlines. But the Commissioner said he would not be drawing up a blacklist of 'unsafe' countries.

THE meeting also gave its backing to the Union's tough stance in the ongoing negotiations to improve access for heavy goods vehicles to Swiss Alpine roads. Switzerland last week proposed a levy of 350 ecu per truck as a condition for lifting restrictions on lorries exceeding 28 tonnes. “I think it is a prohibitive levy,” commented Jorritsma-Lebbink. Kinnock said the figure was far too high to even consider, but stressed that the EU was looking for a “satisfactory” agreement in the early months of the year. He said the meeting had produced a range of ideas which should go some way to meeting Swiss concerns, but was unwilling to reveal them at this stage. Earlier, Jorritsma-Lebbink met a delegation of environmental protesters who complained about the pressure being exerted on the administration in Bern. The self-styled 'Platform for Another Europe' erected a ten-metre-high inflatable mountain in the heart of Amsterdam, to represent the threat to the Swiss Alps.

MINISTERS agreed that member states should proceed quickly to set up a common system of electronic road tolls. “A certain degree of urgency is required ... the point simply is to avoid the incompatibility we saw in the development of televisions or mobile phones,” said Jorritsma-Lebbink. Kinnock stressed that countries would not be forced to adopt road tolls, but added that those who decided to do so would be encouraged to apply the common system. The Dutch said they intended to introduce an electronic system in their largest cities by 2001.

THE Dutch used the meeting to unveil new road signs which will be put up on three main roads out of Amsterdam showing the distance to a number of European capitals. They also showed off new car registration plates, bearing the European flag, which will come into use in the Netherlands in 1998.