The EC has pledged to investigate the issue and at the recent ECATRA congress in Rome, two speakers - Roger Craske, director of European Union tax and legislation ADT Auctions, a former Customs & Excise official, and EC adviser, and Andre Gallin, quality and development director Hertz France - discussed the key issues.

Rental companies are to lobby the EC for the right to allow re-rental of cars in a foreign country - possibly up to a maximum three-month period after the car arrives in the country - to either a local or a foreign customer for use anywhere in Europe prior to its repatriation to its original country. In calling for a more efficient pan-European daily rental sector Craske said the result, following EC discussions, needed to be:

A paper will shortly be submitted to each relevant directorate setting out the justification for more flexible cross-border rental possibilities and ECATRA's ideas for providing a framework. It will feature calls for:

The catalyst for ECATRA's call for increased rental flexibility has been the current political trend towards a more open market and improved transport links, particularly with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Gallin said that in the same way as airline companies sell cross-border tickets, so car rental companies need to deal across borders without hindrance.