EUROPEAN Union (EU) transport commissioner Jacques Barrot is proposing an EU mandate for ‘price review clauses in transport contracts in order to take into account variations in the price of fuel’.

His European Commission officials are also planning another attempt to harmonise fuel excise duty rates across the EU for diesel sold to commercial vehicles.

The Frenchman has come under mounting pressure from his home country government to act, where commercial transport operators and their customers want lower duty rates.