MEPs, meeting in plenary session of the European Parliament, adopted (398 votes in favour, 179 against, 32 abstentions), on Thursday 25 October, their position at first reading on the revision of Directive 1999/62/EC on road infrastructure charges and decided to include passenger cars in the scope of the text.
This first-reading vote on the text by Christine Revault d'Allonnes-Bonnefoy (S&D, France) echoes the vote of the Parliament's ‘transport’ Committee from 24 May last (see EUROPE 12026), following the Commission's proposal of May 2017 (see EUROPE 11799).
The members of Parliament had voted in favour of replacing the time-based vignette system with a distance-based toll system on chargeable infrastructure, in accordance with the 'user pays' principle, as of 1 January 2023 for heavy vehicles.
But it was the issue of passenger cars that raised some doubts about the outcome of the vote (see EUROPE 12124). As a reminder, the ‘transport’ Committee had voted in favour of the end of the vignette system for all light vehicles, including passenger cars, by 31 December 2025, without, however, the obligation to replace this system with a toll system.
However, an amendment tabled by EPP MEPs advocated excluding passenger cars from the scope of the text. This amendment was rejected by a large majority (374 votes 'against', 233 'in favour').
But the obligation to end the vignette system for passenger cars by 31 December 2025 was very slightly rejected (293 votes 'in favour', 299 votes 'against'), unlike the Commission's initial proposal to end such a system for light commercial vehicles by 31 December 2027. The vast majority of the EPP thus went against the position of the Parliament's ‘transport’ Committee on this point. And while a majority of deputies from countries with vignette systems (Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia) voted against the end of the system by 2025, this vote was not massive and national partisan logic seems to have been respected.
In other words, the provisions of the text, in particular those relating to external cost charges, would apply to passenger cars, but not those relating to the end of the vignette, if the Parliament's position were the one adopted by the co-legislators.
Some elements of the text adopted in the Parliament's ‘transport’ Committee have not been retained, in particular the inclusion of motorcycles in the scope of the text.
Mrs Revault d'Allonnes Bonnefoy expressed her satisfaction at the end of the vote, stating that it marked a "turning point for the European transport policy to better take into account the environmental and social impact of road transport in Europe".
Council. The ball is now in the court of the Council of the European Union to start inter-institutional negotiations ('trilogues').
However, the national delegations of the Council's Land Transport Working Party are focusing their current discussions on the social and market aspects of the first ‘mobility’ package (posting of hauliers, driving and resting times, cabotage, tachograph), and no negotiation meetings are planned for this year (see EUROPE 12121). The trilogues should therefore not start in the near future. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)