Brussels, 14/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Four months after it reached a political agreement, the Council on Monday 14 February officially adopted its first-reading common position on the revised draft Eurovignette directive (revised directive on the application of toll charges to heavy goods vehicles). The decision was taken without debate. The Italian and Spanish delegations voted against and the Irish, Dutch and Portuguese delegations abstained. The text of the directive will now be put before the European Parliament for second reading. The intention expressed by both the Council and the Parliament is to seek to reach an agreement at second reading; in other words, to avoid having to launch the conciliation procedure.
Once it is adopted, the directive will allow the member states to bring in certain external costs (noise and air pollution, as proposed by the Council) caused by road transport, as well as the payments currently collected for the use of infrastructure. The composition of the member states, which was achieved by a narrow margin in October last year and negotiated hurriedly, diverges from the position adopted by the Parliament (EUROPE 10302) on two points in particular: the list of externals and the allocation of the revenue.
Externals. The Council believes that the member states should be able to apply the new “charge for external costs” to heavy goods vehicles; but they have removed the introduction of a specific charge related to congestion as proposed by the European Commission and supported by the EP. This new charge will be in addition to the “infrastructure” costs to recover the cost of existing road infrastructure, and is designed to recover the costs of building, maintaining, operating and developing this infrastructure. In order to recover congestion costs, the member states will be able to vary this infrastructure charge by a maximum variation rate of 175% during peak times, which will be limited to 5 hours per day. The level of the toll charges applicable to heavy goods vehicles will depend on the type and emissions of the vehicle, the distance travelled, the place and time of use. This sliding scale of charges is designed to encourage traffic to move to more environmentally-friendly means of transport. Allocation of revenue. The states may, but are not obliged to, allocate the revenue from charges for external costs to projects in the transport sector. Given the constitutional constraints of certain member states, the Council, to the great consternation of the EP, decided to leave it entirely up to the Member States as to how this revenue is divided up. In its initial proposal, the Commission recommended an obligatory allocation of revenue from charges for external costs. Scope of application. The application of the tolls, which, under the current directive, is limited to the trans-European road network, may be extended to all motorways. The member states may exempt vehicles of less than 12 tonnes from the tolls if they feel it is necessary, if, for example, the application of tolls would create major negative effects or excessive administrative costs. EURO classes. Vehicles which respect the strictest emissions standards will be exempted from having to pay atmospheric pollution charges for four years starting from the date on which these standards become applicable. This means that vehicles in the EURO VI emissions class will be exonerated until 31 December 2017. Additionally, EURO V vehicles will be exempted until the date of application of the EURO VI standards, or 31 December 2013. Vehicles with an emissions level below the EURO VI standard, in other words hybrid and electric heavy goods vehicles, will be exempted. (A.By./transl.fl)