The French government has come under increasing pressure from fellow members of the European Union to resolve the truckers' dispute that has crippled the French and European transport systems. It is a perfect illustration of the interdependence which binds EU economies together, creating a momentum towards closer co-ordination of their national policies. Jobs are severely at risk in this and other states if the dispute is prolonged. It must be brought to a speedy end by the French authorities.
Ireland has been to the fore in calling for a special council of transport ministers, taking account of this State's geographical position and the particular vulnerability of its trade to such disruption. This is perfectly legitimate. The council would be a forum through which political pressure can be exerted, even though it does not have the legal competence to intervene in such an industrial dispute; nor does the European Commission - except through initiating a case in the European Court of Justice attesting violation of the single market regulations. The single market has clearly been violated by the chaos in the French transport system, but legally it is necessary to prove negligence by the French authorities - a difficult and lengthy task. Far better to bring maximum political pressure to bear on them to resolve the dispute effectively.
It would be easier to do so were the Commission's proposals and directives on maximum working and driving times and conditions taken more seriously by the member-states, employers and trade unions. A paradox lies at the heart of the French dispute, between the transport sector's extreme fragmentation and lack of trade union organisation on the one hand and the extraordinary, semi-insurrectionary, militancy of its drivers on the other. It is not difficult to sympathise with the drivers when one realises the extent to which the agreement reached last year to settle their dispute has simply been reneged upon by their employers. Only a tiny proportion of drivers has benefitted from the shorter hours and higher pay agreed then. They have reached in frustration for the weapons of direct action which they have used in the past and which they share with farmers and others in the grand tradition of French protest.
In the longer term, this seems a perfectly appropriate case for the application of minimal standards and regulations, enforced at national as well as European levels. Only in this way would a culture of trust emerge. Employers groups will be quick to point out the competitive disadvantages of such an approach, especially since truck drivers elsewhere in Europe seem prepared to accept less advantageous working conditions and rates of pay than their French counterparts. In the meantime, it is essential that the dispute be brought speedily to an end in response to political and commercial pressure in France and throughout the EU.