8. 7. 87 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 180/41 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EEC) No 3164/76 
on the Community quota for the carriage of goods by road between Member States (!) 
(87/C 180/13) 
On 6 April 1987 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee 
under Article 75 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community on the 
abovementioned proposal. 
The Section for Transport and Communications, which was responsible for preparing the 
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 8 May 1987, in the light of the 
report by Mr L.J. Smith. 
At its 246th plenary session (meeting of 14 May 1987) the Committee adopted the following 
Opinion with no votes against and nine abstentions. 
1. In its Opinion of 26 November 1986 (2) the Com­
mittee stated that 'the Community would suffer no 
harm if the Commission proposal for a 40% increase... 
were not put into force precipitately on 1 January 
1987' and that one should first see what proposals the 
Commission has to make on harmonization. Indeed 
there is a causal relationship between liberalization and 
the need for harmonization of important conditions of 
competition. 
2. The Committee has therefore consistently taken 
the view that increases in capacity should not occur 
automatically (as envisaged in Article 2 of the above-
mentioned draft Regulation on access to the market for 
a four-year period from 1 January 1988) but should be 
economically justified; the Committee has also advocat­
ed that such increases should take due account on 
progress in harmonization. 
3. The Council has clearly taken account of the 
Committee's views in two respects. Through Decision 
86/647/EEC of 16 December 1986 (3) it has confirmed 
Commission Decision 86/491/EEC of 30 September 
1986 (4), with a slight correction to the Belgian share of 
the Community quota (5). In addition, at its March 1987 
meeting, it postponed the decision on a further increase 
in the quota until its June meeting, evidently in order 
to await the outcome of the further discussions of the 
Commission communication on tax harmonization in 
road haulage. 
4. At the moment the Committee is also assessing 
the Commission proposals on access to the market 
and tax harmonization; its work on these is almost 
completed. 
(!) OJ No C 87, 2. 4. 1987, p. 16. 
(2) Opinion on Article 2 of the proposal for a Council Regulation 
on access to the market for the carriage of goods by road 
between Member States (OJ No C 333, 29. 12. 1986, p. 19). 
(3) OJ No L 382, 31. 12. 1986, p. 2. 
(4) OJ No L 285, 8. 10. 1986, p. 29. 
(5) Increase of 15 (26,2%). 5. The Committee notes that the Commission has 
been led to abandon its earlier approach and to present 
an ad hoc proposal reflecting a more pragmatic 
approach pending further discussion on the Com­
mission documents on market access and tax harmon­
ization. The Commission proposal under consideration 
is thus concerned solely with an increase in the Com­
munity quota in the course of 1987 (the deadline of 
1 April 1987 in the Commission document has now 
passed). 
6. The Committee takes a positive view of this pro­
posal for the following reasons: 
6.1. The Commission document envisages an Overall 
increase of 55,1 % in relation to Regulation (EEC) 
No 3677/85 (6) (11 535 authorizations as compared with 
7 437), but in relation to Commission Decision 
86/491/EEC (11 535 as compared with 9 386) the over­
all increase is only 22,9 %. If the Council were to bring 
the Commission proposal into force by 1 July 1987, the 
expansion of capacity linked with the increase in the 
Community quota could be reasonable. 
6.2. The Committee assumes that when the Council 
has to decide on the Commission document at its June 
meeting it should have further information on tax har­
monization which could make it appropriate to arrive 
at a decision. 
63. The Section for Transport and Communications 
also plans to adopt its Opinions on market access and 
tax harmonization at its meeting on 10 June 1987 and 
send them to the Council for information before the 
latter's June meeting. 
6.4. Finally the Committee draws the attention of 
the Council to the implications that even a once-only 
increase of this size in the Community quota, without 
any accompanying progress in harmonization, will have 
on the normal operation of the market. 
(6) OJ No L 354, 30. 12. 1985, p. 46. 
Done at Brussels, 14 May 1987. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alfons MARGOT