German Sundays Stay Truck-Free

Germany appears to have stopped - for now - a proposed European Union directive that could have paved the way for the EU Commission to eventually undermine bans on heavy trucks operating on Sundays in Germany and other EU countries.

Germany became alarmed last week when Italy, a crucial ally in its successful blocking of attempts to give the Commission this power over the past five years, announced that it would not oppose the directive.

"The minister has spoken to his Italian counterpart and got the impression that Italy has returned to its previous position," Corinna Fricke, a spokeswoman for the German Permanent Representation to the EU, told F.A.Z. Weekly on Thursday.

She said the directive had not been on the agenda of Thursday's meeting of EU transport ministers, as had been widely reported in the news media, but denied that it had been dropped at the last minute.

Without Italy's support, Germany would no longer have had a big enough blocking minority in the face of demands by some EU member countries to give the Commission more authority over truck traffic. German officials feared this would ultimately enable the Commission to order that the country's highways be opened to truck traffic seven days a week.

A federal law bans trucks of more than 7.5 tons from driving on German roads on Sundays and public holidays unless they carry perishable goods. Even though the EU Commission said the directive would not touch existing bans, politicians from all the major parties and representatives of automobile clubs in car-happy Germany said the European Union should have no right to frustrate a country's decision to ensure less noise and smoother traffic one day per week. They warned the commission could change its stance on existing bans once it has the authority.

"It is the first time that Brussels is getting authority in this area," said the head of the Christian Social Union group in the European parliament, Markus Ferber, "With the next revision (of EU transport law) at the latest, the EU commission could then tighten the law to Germany's disadvantage."

Confident that this danger has been contained for now, German Transportation Minister Manfred Stolpe told reporters during the ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday that there would be no majority for such an initiative in the EU Council of Ministers. As for the Commission, it "can certainly not count on Germany here. And we are not alone," he said.

Neither his ministry nor the German representation to the EU would comment on possible reasons for Italy's apparent change of position.