Brussels, 29/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has asked the Austrian and Swiss governments to consider whether they can authorise more lorries to travel through their countries than currently allowed under Austria's Ecopoint system and the transit agreement for 40-tonne lorries, signals a press release. The Commission announced that following contacts with the Directorate-General for Transport, the Austrian piggyback company Ökombi announced that it would be increasing its road capacity by 40% or an additional 300 lorries per day. The Commission added that it believed similar efforts were needed in the other Member States and in Switzerland.
The Commission has no power regarding the re-opening of tunnels, pointed out the Transport Commissioner's spokesperson in December when asked about the re-opening of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, but said that the proposal on tunnel safety (to be unveiled early in 2002) would cover technical equipment (accident detection systems, ventilation, escape areas and tunnels, etc) and traffic rules (limits on dangerous vehicles, minimum distance between vehicles and alternate lanes) and staff training and the emergency services' speed of response.