it was conceived at a time, before the Oil and Energy Crisis, when some system of Community sales aids may have been desirable in order to make Community coking coal competitive with the much cheaper imported coal.

The origin of this scheme long pre-dates UK entry into the Community; it was conceived at a time, before the Oil and Energy Crisis, when some system of Community sales aids may have been desirable in order to make Community coking coal competitive with the much cheaper imported coal.

It was becauseof the Oil and Energy Crisis.