Note: Terms defined elsewhere in the Glossary are shown in italics.

Cabotage: The exclusive right of a country to operate the traffic within its territory.

CEBR: Centre for Economics and Business Research

CfIT: Commission for Integrated Transport

DETR: Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions

ECMT: European Conference of Ministers of Transport

Ecofin: The Council of Ministers of the European Union responsible for Economic and Financial Affairs; it is made up of the economics and finance ministers of the Member States.

ECU: European Currency Unit

EESC: European Economic and Social Committee

EMU: Economic and Monetary Union

EU: European Union

EU-15: term used to refer collectively to the 15 countries that are Member States of the EU prior to enlargement of the EU in 2004.

EUR: euro

European Council: the European Council consists of the heads of state or government of the European Union.

Eurozone: Term used to refer collectively to those Member States which are participating in Stage Three of EMU, that is, who have adopted the euro.

EWS: English, Welsh and Scottish Railway ltd.

FTA: Freight Transport Association

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

HMT: Her Majesty's Treasury

ITS: Institute for Transport Studies, Leeds University

METRs: Marginal effective tax rates

NERA: National Economic Research Association

OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

OJ: The Official Journal of the European Union

PRA: Petrol Retailers Association

RHA: Road Haulage Association.

The following are the abbreviations used in this report for the countries of the EU:

B: Belgium

DK: Denmark

D: Germany

EL: Greece

E: Spain

F: France

IE: Ireland

I: Italy

L: Luxembourg

NL: Netherlands

A: Austria

P: Portugal

SF: Finland

S: Sweden

UK: United Kingdom

In accordance with Community practice, the EU countries are listed using the alphabetical order of the country names in the national languages.