The European Commission is asking the French government to set up a comprehensive information system to ensure that stranded foreign truckers can find alternative routes. And yesterday it appealed to French employers and unions to come back to the negotiating table in the interest of jobs, workers and companies.
Anxious to uphold its treaty obligation to defend the free movement of goods and people, the Commission also reminded the French government of its own obligations in this regard. But the Commission's spokeswoman, stressed it did not want to call into question the right to strike.
In a joint statement, the Transport and Social Affairs Commissioners, Mr Neil Kinnock and Mr Padraig Flynn, avoided attributing blame but said that the Commission was "very concerned about the potential impact these blockades will have on the free movement of goods and people that is the foundation of a European single market.
"The knock-on effects will affect business, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises which depend on regular supplies and on being able to ensure deliveries to their markets and customers.
"When business suffers there is, of course, a negative impact on employment too," they warned.
The blockade highlights the impotence of the Commission in an area essentially the remit of national governments. The only action which can be taken by Brussels is to bring France to the European Court of Justice, a procedure that takes considerable time and would not contribute to resolving the dispute.
Since the November 1996 strike, Mr Kinnock has been in contact with the French about speeding up the provision of compensation. Commission sources do not believ, however, that a common compensation fund, proposed by the Irish MEP, Mr Jim Fitzsimons, would get the backing of the Council of Ministers.
Commision officials stressed that Brussels has been trying to tackle some of the root causes of discontent in the road haulage sector in Europe, by improving competitiveness and promoting the highest possible operating standards and working conditions.
Transport Ministers have approved Commission legislation to make it more difficult for "cow-boy" operators to undercut the market. The Commission is also been in discussions with the social partners about revising its own working time directive to include transport workers, and a separate regulation on driving time, an issue at the heart of the French dispute.
