Brussels, 03/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EU Council reached an unanimous decision on Friday to declare that aid granted by France, Italy and the Netherlands to their road hauliers at the end of 2000 is compatible with the rules of the internal market. Austria was the last Member State to lift its reserve. The procedure was begun end February by France, Italy and the Netherlands under Article 88§2 of the Treaty, which allows the Council to declare aid compatible with the rules of the internal market independently of the Commission's opinion. This decision therefore definitively blocks a decision by the Commission, which was preparing to condemn tax exemptions on professional diesel fuel granted to hauliers by these three countries during the rise in oil prices end 2000. The decision, however, is only valid within the time limits fixed by the directive on excise, which puts an end to the derogation for the Netherlands in October 2002, and at the end of the year for Italy and France. The Commission, moreover, is to present a proposal this summer for harmonising excise on professional diesel fuel (see EUROPE of 17 April, p.12). Austria had to be pressed before it would give its agreement, mainly calling on Italy for guarantees that the "ecopoint system would extend beyond 2003. At the request of the Austrian Chancellor at the Laeken Summit, the Commission proposed the system should be extended. Before rallying to the decision, Germany had put pressure on France to obtain guarantees that an aid scheme for coal, to which Paris is opposed, would be prolonged.