29. 12. 86 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 333/19 
require a new type approval under the Smoke Directive 
(72/306/EEC). 
3.5.1. In this context, however, the Committee 
invites the Commission and the Council to render it 
absolutely clear that until 30 September 1990: 
— the new emission control standards may be applied 
by Member States only to those vehicles for which 
a new smoke type approval is sought, 
but that 
— Member States must abstain from introducing 
mandatory national emission control requirements for all other vehicles during the transitional period, 
prior to the entry into force of the provisions of the 
proposed Directive. 
4. External relations 
The Committee asks the Commission to engage in 
negotiations with other European countries to ensure 
that the proposed harmonized emission control regu­
lations for diesel engines will not remain limited to the 
EEC but will be accepted as far as possible at least by 
all European countries outside the EEC. 
Done at Brussels, 26 November 1986. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alfons MARGOT 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on access to the market for the 
carriage of goods transport by road between Member States 
(86/C 333/07) 
On 10 and 11 November 1986 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social 
Committee, under Articles 75 and 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic 
Community, on the abovementioned proposal. 
In anticipation of the request for an opinion the ESC Bureau decided at its meeting of 
22 October 1986 to instruct the Section for Transport and Communications to carry out the 
necessary preparatory work; on 23 October 1986 the Section set up a Study Group and 
appointed Mr L.J. Smith rapporteur. 
Since the Commission proposal envisages inter alia a 40% increase in the Community quota 
on 1 January 1987, an opinion by the Economic and Social Committee is urgently required, 
at least on this aspect of the proposal. This is also reflected in the letter of 14 November 
1986 in which the Council specially requested the Committee to deliver an interim opinion 
on Article 2 of draft Regulation in November 1986. In addition, the Committee has to be 
consulted in accordance with Article 75 of the Treaty before the Council can take its decision. 
At its 241st plenary session (meeting of 26 November 1986), the ESC adopted the following 
opinion by 87 votes to 19, with 14 abstentions: 
1. General comments ment of 22 May 1985 in Case 13/83 (*) and from the 
1.1. At its meeting of 14 November 1985 the Council 
drew its conclusions from the European Court Judg- (!) OJ No C 144, 13. 6. 1986, p. 4. 
No C 333/20 Official Journal of the European Communities 29. 12. 86 
29 June 1985 on the development of the common trans­
port policy, conclusions which may be summarized as 
follows: 
— creation of a free market in transport with no quan­
titative restrictions by 1992 at the latest; 
—- during the transitional period progressive adap­
tation of the bilateral quotas on a non-discriminat­
ory basis, coupled with increases in Community 
quotas; 
— elimination of distortions of competition during the 
transitional period. 
1.2. At its meeting of 30 June 1986 the Council was 
even clearer on the future organization of the internal 
road hautage market: 'in order to permit progressive 
adjustment during the transitional period to the free 
market to be created by 1992 at the latest, and to ensure 
that transition to the new system is as smooth as 
possible, the annual increase in the Community quota 
must be higher than the present 15 %. As from 1987 
the annual increase will therefore have to be brought 
up to 40% (cumulative) until the introduction of the 
final phase ...' 
2.2. Under Article 2, paragraph 2 of the Commission 
proposal, the total number of Community authoriza-1.3. As regards conditions of competition the 
Council decided: 'During the transitional period, work 
on the elimination of distortions of competition should 
be expedited'; in this connection it requested the Com­
mission 'to submit as soon as possible and by 1 January 
1987 at the latest, a study on motor vehicle taxation, 
excise duty on fuel and road tolls and the correlation 
between them'. 
1.4. The system of bilateral quotas is to be retained 
during the transitional period, even though they are not 
consistent with the Judgment of the Court of Justice of 
the European Communities. 
2. Specific comments on Article 2 of the draft Regu­
lation 
2.1. To enable a picture to be formed of the scope of 
the periodic increases in the Community authorizations, 
these are summarized below in a table: 
tions (11 475 for 1987) is to increase cumulatively by 
40% per annum until 1991, so that the size of the Country 
Belgium 
Denmark 
Federal Republic of 
Germany 
Greece 
France 
Ireland 
Italy 
Luxembourg 
Netherlands 
United Kingdom 
Portugal 
Spain 1984 
1 
434 
305 
727 
88 
656 
88 
567 
111 
626 
436 
4 038 
(58) 
(436) 
4 427 % 
2 
9,8 
6,9 
16,4 
2,0 
14,8 
2,0 
12,8 
2,5 
14,1 
9,9 
1.3 
7,5 
100 1985 
Regul-
(EEC) 
No 
3621/84 
(a) 
3 
570 
469 
914 
131 
801 
147 
721 
179 
785 
551 
5 268 
(129) 
(443} 
5 840 % 
4 
9,8 
8,0 
15,7 
2,2 
13,7 
2,5 
12,4 
3,1 
13,4 
9,4 
100 1986 
mission 
Decision 
85/476/-
EEC (b) 
5 
+ 87 
+ 112 
+ 120 
+ 27 
+ 89 
+ 42 
+ 100 
+ 48 
+ 107 
+ 75 
+ 803 6 
657 
581 
1034 
158 
890 
189 
821 
227 
888 
626 
6 071(e) 
673 1986 
Regul­
ation 
(EEC) 
No 
3677/85 
(c) 
7 
707 
625 
1 112 
170 
957 
204 
883 
245 
955 
673 
6 531(f) 
233 
9,1 
7 437 8 
+ 50 
+ 44 
+ 78 
+ 12 
+ 67 
+ 15 
+ 62 
+ 18 
+ 63 
+ 47 
+ 456 
+ 156 % 
9 
9,5 
8,4 
15,0 
2,3 
12,9 
2,7 
11,9 
3,3 
12,8 
9,1 
3,1 
829 
100 Decision 
86/491/-
EEC (d) 
10 
+ 101 
+ 114 
+ 329 
+ 60 
+ 281 
+ 54 
+ 295 
+ 60 
+ 336 
+ 87 
+ 76 
1 104 
1 949 11 
808 
739 
1 441 
230 
1238 
258 
1 178 
305 
1291 
760 
309 
9 386 
+ 26,2% mission 
Proposal 
1987 
12 
976 
929 
1735 
293 
1488 
341 
1 424 
404 
1553 
902 
416 
11475 
+ 22,2% 
(a) OJ No L 333, 21. 12. 1984, p. 61. 
(b) OJ No L 283,24. 10. 1985, p. 16. 
(c) OJ No L 354, 31. 12. 1985, p. 46. 
(d) OJ No L 285, 8. 10. 1986, p. 29. 
(e) Increase of 15,2% on the 1985 figure. 
(f) Increase of 24 % on the 1985 figure, and of 7,6 % on the quotas fixed by Commission Decision 85/476/EEC of 27 September 1985. 
29. 12. 86 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 333/21 
Community quota could evolve as follows: 
— 1988: 16 065 authorizations, 
— 1989: 22 491 authorizations, 
— 1990: 31 487 authorizations, 
— 1991: 44 082 authorizations. 
2.3. There is little point in speculating what percent­
age of intra-Community trade will be carried over the 
coming years under Community or bilateral authoriza­
tions. If one assumes that the freedom to provide trans­
port services (cabotage) can be realized, as the Com­
mission considers, in a 'reasonable' period of approxi­
mately two years, one cannot but conclude that this 
massive increase in capacity must have its effects on 
the level of freight rates. 
2.4. The Committee therefore shares the Com­
mission's view that a new market regime cannot be 
established at the expense of workers employed in road 
haulage and that, consequently, measures should be 
adopted with all speed so that no harmful economic or 
social consequences ensue. 
2.5. Moreover, the Committee is at a loss to under­
stand why the Commission has not sought to lend this 
position greater credibility by submitting along with 
this package of liberalization measures a series of har­
monization measures so that the Council could decide 
on both at the same time. 
2.6. In view of the very short time available, the 
Committee is not in a position to examine the Corn-
Done at Brussels, 26 November 1986. mission proposal in its entirety. For the same reason it 
has been unable to establish whether its reservations 
about an automatic increase in quotas, regardless of 
the actual state of the market, would be groundless 
and whether this automatic increase would in fact be 
compatible with the special features of the transport 
sector. 
2.7. It therefore refers in the first instance to its 
opinion of 26 October 1983 (l) on the new method for 
calculating the Community quota-—an opinion which 
has lost none of its justification in the intervening 
period. 
2.8. For the reasons indicated above, the Committee 
considers that the Community would suffer no harm if 
the Commission proposal for a 40% increase, which 
would in effect work out at only 22,2 %, were not put 
into force precipitately on 1 January 1987; it would be 
better to examine this proposal more thorougly before 
it is implemented. 
2.9. The Committee therefore proposes that such an 
increase, over and above the increase of 26,2 % already 
decided by the Commission for 1987, should not be 
approved without first seeing what proposals the Com­
mission has to make on harmonization. 
2.10. The Committee regards the present opinion as 
a preliminary statement of its views on one aspect of 
the Commission proposal. It will pursue its examination 
of the full text expeditiously with a view to presenting 
a comprehensive opinion at the beginning of 1987, 
taking into account the parallel deliberations on the 
freedom to provide services in transport. 
(M OJ No C 358, 31. 12. 1983, p. 28. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alfons MARGOT 
^oC^^A^ ^hc^i]ourn^lotrh^Furon^nC^ornrnun^n^ ^.1^^ 
The following proposal for an amendment was rejected by the Community in the course of the discussions^ 
^^ 
replace the whole Section opinion by the following^ 
^Sub^ecttoathorough appraisal of the draft regulation on access to the market for the carriage of goods by 
road between member States (CO^t(8^) ^9^ final), on which the Committee was consulted on..., the Section 
notes that Article 2(2) of this proposal is, as regards the year 1987,in conformity with the Council'sDecision 
of^^une 198^ to increase each year, from 1987 to 1991,the number of Community quotas by at least ^0^. 
ttstressesthatthisdecisionisinlmewiththeconclusionsoftheCouncilmeetingof l^tl^ovember 198^, 
whichfollowedonfrom the^udgementby theCourtof^usticeof the^uropeanCommunitiesof22^tay 
198^(Casel^83)and from the ^vlilan European Council of 28 and 29^unel98^as far as the common 
transport policy is concerned. These conclusions can be summarized as follows^ 
— creation ofafree market with no quantitative restrictions in the transport field by!992 at the latest 
— progressive adaptation,onanon^discrimmatory basis, of bilateral quotas during the transitional period 
and parallel development of the Community c^uota^ 
— elimination over the transitional period of distortions of competition. 
The Section therefore calls on the Council to approve Article 2(2) of the above proposal before^lDecember 
198^. 
It also calls on the Council to examine asamatter of pnonty,withaview to taking an earlydecision,the 
other elements of the proposal regulation. 
It further recalls that onl^l^ovemberl98^the Council had also requested the Commission to present as 
soon as possible andmanycase before l^anuary 1987astudyontheta^ationof motor vehicles,excise 
duties on fuels and roadtolls and the interrelations between them. 
Theviewsetoutinthedocument runs counter tothereahzationofacommon transport market,smce it 
advocates retaining quantitative restrictions on access to road transport until competition conditions in the 
transport sector are completely harmomzed.tn addition the time allowed to the ^SC is madmissibly short. 
Votes for^37.Votes againsL7^.Abstentionsm7.