Brussels, 10/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - MEPs on the European Parliament's transport and tourisms committee want the European Commission to internationalise external costs for all forms of transport. The Commission submitted an internal document to the MEPs on Thursday 9 January on internationalising and reducing “external” costs like pollution, noise and infrastructure wear and tear.
The Commission was unable to give a clear picture of practices in the EU because of the sheer complexity of modes of transport in each country. The situation is clearer for road transport, where fuel tax is often used to deal with externalities related to climate change, but the situation is far less tangible for rail (the tax on infrastructure), shipping (unclear taxation system in ports) and aviation (the carbon tax system, ETS). The Commission pointed out that many of the charges and taxes on transport have nothing to do with any external costs they might compensate for.
MEP Dominique Riquet (EPP, France) strongly regretted the mishmash of fees and what they are used for. The EPP's transport spokesman, Mathieu Grosch (Belgium), criticised the fact that fees are used to fill public coffers rather than reduce the negative impact of transport, like damage to infrastructure. He wants progress to be made in internationalising costs, noting that financial measures were not needed, but rather methods that can be used to counteract the damaging impact of transport. Gesine Meissner (Germany), speaking on behalf of the Liberals, and Eva Lichtenbergers (Austria) speaking on behalf of the Greens, regretted that the Commission had not done much in this domain. Socialist Saïd El Khadraoui (Belgium), rapporteur in the past on the eurovignette scheme, pointed out that the Commission was pushing the polluter-pays idea but not allowing the member states to introduce payment systems. Member states have their hands tied, he said, urging the Commission to make a firm commitment and set milestones to ensure deeper consideration of the whole system of charges. (MD/transl.fl)