Reply to the 12th annual report of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly Debate on 28th September 1966 (12th Sitting) (see Doc. 2104, report of the Economic Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28th September 1966 (12th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Having examined the 12th annual report of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport;
2. Believing that European transport policy has an important role to play in the progressive realisation of European unity,
3. Warmly approves of the adoption by ECMT of a Resolution covering a series of liberalisation measures relating to international road transport (paragraph 10 of the report), and urges Governments to implement them without delay, with a view to reducing restrictions on international road transport to a minimum;
4. Holds that, as soon as the development of EEC's common transport policy gives rise to major problems for other Members of ECMT, Restricted Group No. 2 should play a more significant role in co-ordinating transport policies inside and outside EEC within the framework of ECMT;
5. Welcomes the decision by ECMT to organise regularly Symposia (paragraph 12), without losing sight of the creation of a Transport Institute to act as the intellectual clearing house essential for the working out of a European transport policy;
6. Believes that it would be of interest to profit by the financial lesson to be learned from the experiment in carrying parcels first by rail to a small number of "freight sundries concentration" stations and thence by road haulage to their destination (paragraph 18);
7. Holds that Governments should encourage the conclusion of agreements between railway authorities for the establishment of through rates (direct international rates) since such agreements, concluded with a view to standardising rates for users, tend to facilitate and develop international traffic;
8. Considers that ECMT is right to take up once again the question of railway deficits, and asks whether, in the course of research into the causes of such deficits, it would be possible for ECMT to distinguish the economic and uneconomic sectors of national railway systems (paragraph 25);
9. Thanks the Council of Ministers of Transport for accepting the suggestion to hold, as soon as possible, a second joint meeting of ECMT and Council of Europe experts on the safety education of road users (paragraph 67), and for continuing to regard the drafting of a European Highway Code as one of its targets (paragraph 70);
10. Requests ECMT to take account, when studying the role and prospects of the inland waterways (paragraph 71), of the capital costs involved;
11. Urges Governments to consider ECMT as the natural focal point for the co-ordination of projects and ideas relating both to specifically international problems and to national problems which would be better dealt with from an international standpoint;
12. Asks, in conclusion, that in the next report of ECMT information regarding the Channel Tunnel project and its consequences for European transport should be included.
