The price for using roads subject to a toll fee in the European Union will be calculated on the basis of the distance travelled and not the time spent on these roads. This will apply for heavy-duty vehicles from 2024 and for light vehicles from 2026.
According to this text, in the proposals the European Commission will put forward in the presentation of the “mobility package” on Wednesday 31 May, the Commission is effectively seeking to put a stop to member states being able to introduce a vignette system that allows vehicles to use roads where tolls are applied for a specific time. On the other hand, although the member states would like the use of roads to be paid for, they are therefore expected to apply a toll system for which the price will be based on the distance travelled, in an attempt to keep it more in keeping with the “polluter pays” principle.
To this end, the Commission will therefore propose to prohibit the introduction of vignette systems for heavy duty vehicles (utility vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons, as well as buses and cars) as from 1 January 2018. The current systems could possibly be maintained until 31 December 2023. With regard to light vehicles, the ban on introducing such a system would effectively be applicable from the date of the entry into force of the directive, whereas existing systems could also be maintained until 31 December 2025.
On the question of light vehicles, the price paid for using roads where tolls apply may also be based on CO2 emissions and air pollutants, as well as the basis of vehicle ID documents. This could possibly apply as from 1 January 2022. The reference to CO2 emissions would also involve road infrastructure taxes, which heavy duty vehicles will have to pay in compensation for the damages created on roads requiring road works. The reference to CO2 emissions for defining the amount of applicable charges would therefore replace the one on EURO emissions classification.
Under the terms of the text, the member states will not be obliged in any way to introduce a toll system after the entry into force of the directive. Nonetheless, if they decide to put one in place, they will have to comply with the above-mentioned rules.
The proposition for a directive will continue to allow member states to increase toll costs on the basis of external costs linked to air and noise pollution. This system could even be compulsory on the roads where, “the environmental damages generated by heavy duty vehicles are higher than the average environmental damages generated by heavy duty vehicles” on other roads. Finally, the directive also allows there to be a possibility for introducing a “congestion tax” on roads that are regularly congested during specific periods.
Still no threshold on posted workers
One of the other documents EUROPE has obtained relates to working conditions for lorry drivers. Although the questions of posted workers and social dumping have been the subjects of intense debate over recent weeks (see EUROPE 11789), the Commission still does not appear to have set a threshold on the maximum amount of cabotage time or the number of days worked in a member state before the working conditions of the latter apply to third country lorry drivers. This could therefore become the subject of the discussions during Wednesday’s College of Commissioners’ meeting.
Finally, as part of a draft regulation on working time for lorry drivers, a subject that has also caused the unions much concern (see EUROPE 11758), the Commission is also examining the possibility of making a derogation possible to the 45-hour rule on weekly rest times two weeks a month, by way of a rest period reduced to 24 hours. The amount of rest time deducted would therefore be caught up with through a rest time that is equivalent to the period lost before the end of the third week following the period when the working time was increased. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)