Oil issue strains Europe's fragile unity

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Oil issue strains Europe's fragile unity By Steven Komarow USA TODAY

BERLIN -- About 1,200 truckers from around Germany are protesting high oil prices here today, the latest in a series of demonstrations that have cast a new doubt on Europe's ability to achieve economic strength through greater unity.

The protests have spread from Britain to France to Spain on Monday. And if nothing else, they prove that when the going has gotten tough, each country has gone its own way.

The continent has been gripped by weeks of rolling fuel-price protests. Angry demonstrators have demanded cuts in gasoline taxes to ease the pain of spikes in crude oil prices.

The protesters, often led by farmers, truckers and union members, have taken their message to the streets in capitals from Paris to Stockholm to Tel Aviv and now Berlin.

Earlier this month, they paralyzed London by blocking fuel deliveries from gas stations. The protests triggered the biggest political crisis of Tony Blair's three years and four months as prime minister and may have derailed the presidential hopes of French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

''There's an intensity of feeling there,'' says Patrick Altdorfer of Forza polling. ''The public is venting frustration on the government.''

Different responses

Blair has seen his Labor Party drop in the polls behind the conservative Tories for the first time in eight years in the wake of protests there. And German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is maneuvering to avoid the same fate.

But the solution is different in Germany than it was in Britain or in France.

Blair refused to grant concessions when the nation's refineries were blockaded, even though Britain quickly was paralyzed. France, in contrast, buckled almost immediately and cut taxes when fishermen blocked its ports.

Spain's agriculture minister, Miguel Arias Canates, said he's prepared to discuss with protesting fishermen any measure to fight the rise in oil prices except cutting taxes on fuel.

Germany has yet another plan. Its ruling coalition includes the Greens, a party based on energy conservation which helped push through an ''environment tax'' last year of roughly 20 cents a gallon. Designed to discourage people from driving, it was added on top of other taxes that total more than half of the $4 per gallon price at the pump.

Politically unable to discard the tax, Schroeder is proposing expanded tax credits for commuters. And to balance that benefit, he would make credits available to those who walk or ride bicycles to work.

So far, Schroeder is holding his own. Two polls late last week showed his approval rating at 45%, down only two or three points from the week before and still at least a dozen ahead of opposition.

But truckers aren't happy with the government's plan because it leaves them out.

And in the end, Germany may be forced to go further, if for no other reason than to keep its shippers competitive. France's announcement that it would cut taxes has spread: Italy is looking at cutting fuel costs for freight forwarders and taxi drivers; Belgium, Holland and Spain have promised tax relief for truckers who have held similar protests.

The German trucking federation, in fact, is arguing that Germany should follow suit -- in the name of pan-European tax harmony. The protest in Berlin, by far the largest planned, is aimed to bring the message home to the national politicians.

Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen expressed sympathy for the truckers' cause, complaining that ''here we have climbing oil and gasoline prices and bicycle riders and pedestrians get the relief.''

But he also is frustrated by the protest because ''it will hit the wrong people. Berlin now will be doubly punished, first by the high prices and second now with the traffic blockade.''

Big inconvenience

Officials expect only inconvenience, no violence, when the truckers arrive. The drivers intend to slow traffic on highways leading into town and then register their discontent at downtown rallies.

It's not the first protests in Germany. Truckers also have stopped traffic in Hanover, Memmingen, Hamburg, Dresden and Leipzig.

With member countries struggling, European Commission President Romano Prodi met Monday in Brussels with chief executives of major European oil companies. Among the factors driving high fuel prices is the industry's shortage of refining capacity and its tight inventories.

Prodi also discussed with the executives whether members of the European Union should follow the lead of President Clinton and release oil from their strategic reserves. Clinton's announcement last week sent oil prices quickly down.

But, again, the EU's unity is stressed by the situation. Reserves are spread over several member countries, each of which must decide individually on a release

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000926/2684895s.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 26, 2000

Answers

Intensity of feeling. I think that is a rather understated way of describing the unrest in Europe.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 26, 2000.

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