On Monday, 8 April, the national experts, meeting in the Council of the European Union's ‘land transport’ working party, expressed the Member States' desire to have a flexible approach to the revision of Directive 1999/62/EC on road infrastructure charging.
This was a first discussion on the first draft compromise submitted by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, which is related to this dossier and is explained in our columns (see EUROPE 12227/5). It should be recalled that this issue is part of the first 'mobility' package, presented by the Commission in May 2017 (see EUROPE 11799/6).
Not surprisingly, it seems that a majority of States are taking a stand against the mandatory end to time-based user charges (such as vignettes), which the Commission wanted in its proposal. These countries would like to have a choice in their road pricing model.
And in any case, if the vignette system were to disappear one day, several delegations consider that the regimes currently in force - for example concerning heavy duty vehicles (maximum permissible mass exceeding 3,5 tonnes) - should be maintained for a certain period. This is in contrast to Bucharest's proposal in this first text that user charges for this type of vehicle, introduced before the entry into force of the directive, could be maintained for up to 5 years after that date.
In addition, Member States are not in favour of including light duty vehicles in the scope of the future revised directive.
The requests for flexibility from national delegations also concern other aspects covered by the text. In addition, several Member States would like to see the concession contract currently in force protected.
For its part, the Commission is not, unsurprisingly, satisfied with either several of Bucharest's recommendations or the Member States’ positions, which are not in line with its initial proposal.
The Romanian Presidency of the EU Council will try to obtain a political agreement (‘general approach’) for the June ‘transport’ Council meeting. Beyond political issues, technical work must also be carried out to do this. Discussions will continue on Friday, 12 April and Bucharest is expected to submit a new draft compromise before Easter.
The European Parliament marked its position at first reading on this issue last October (see EUROPE 12152/2). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)