The European Commission and Germany have finally buried the hatchet in the war over the German road tariff project. During the Transport Council on Thursday 1 December, the Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, and the German Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, announced that they had reached an agreement on a solution that was fully compatible with EU law, whilst avoiding any discrimination based on nationality.
The agreement was welcomed by the Commissioner, who emphasised that the German tollbooth system in its modified version would constitute an initial stage towards completion of the European road tariff project system (see EUROPE 11671). The German Minister stated, “This is a strong message to all of Europe”. He then repeated his commitment to put in place “a balanced, relevant and fair” system based on the user pays principle.
According to the agreement, the price of the short-term tags purchased by a vast majority of non-residents, will be drastically reduced, compared to the annual tariff and set below a ratio of 1:7.3 and which will appropriately highlight the importance of clean fuel vehicles. According to the calculations presented by the Commission, the short-term tag should therefore cost €2.50 as opposed to the €5 initially planned under German legislation. Elsewhere, the annual vehicle tax is expected to promote more environmentally friendly vehicles, together with implementation of the polluter pays principle, the real warhorse of the European Commission (see EUROPE 11654).
Despite all this, the matter is still not closed. The Commission obviously intends to suspend the infringement procedure but will only withdraw it once German legislation is amended. The announcement does not come as any real surprise as last month Mr Dobrindt stated that his government and the Commission were moving towards an agreement (see EUROPE 11662).
It should be pointed out that the European Commission opened an infringement procedure in June 2015 against Germany over its road tariff project, which it judged to be discriminatory (see EUROPE 11338). In September, the Commission took another step by going to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (see EUROPE 11635). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)