Some stakeholders in the road sector have suggested setting up a single European electronic toll collection service or electronic road tolls, as part of a consultation into the proposal to revise European legislation on this subject (Directive 2004/52/EC and decision 2009/750/EC). The results of which were published on Monday 30 January.
The proposal was put forward by several respondents, including a toll operator, an ITS solutions provider and employers’ association. Their anonymity has been maintained in the study.
According to these respondents, this kind of authority would have several advantages: such an authority could provide a single point of contact for EETS, to register EETS providers, as a conciliation body between EETS providers and toll chargers, as a clearing house for EETS to mitigate risk, and providing clear EU-wide enforcement to ensure payment across borders.
The employers’ association also argued for the European Commission to be given the authority to inspect planned infrastructure and for its decision to be binding on member states.
This proposal was not exactly appreciated by the German government who pointed out in their response that such decisions fell within the scope of the member states.
The European Commission intends to present a revision to the European legislation this May, in an effort to rectify the many obstacles hampering the introduction of toll services in the EU. One of the Commission objectives is to tackle the proliferation of national level technologies and specifications that fragment the internal market and undermine the interoperability of services, which subsequently leads to surcharges for the different stakeholders, particularly the road transport operators.
The ineffectiveness of European legislation in this domain was pointed out several years ago. In a 2015 roadmap, the Commission highlighted the fact that the majority of member states has still not complied with the 2009 decision, an observation it had already made in 2012 (see EUROPE 10680). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)