On Wednesday, 11 September, the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union submitted to national delegations a first draft compromise, of which EUROPE has a copy, of the revision of Directive 1999/62/EC on road infrastructure user charges, which introduces more flexibility than proposed by the former Romanian Presidency (see EUROPE 12272/5).
In fact, while the changes suggested by Helsinki are few in number, they are significant in their content.
It is still proposed that Member States may no longer introduce time-based user charges (such as vignettes) for heavy duty vehicles (over 3.5 tonnes of permissible laden mass) from the date of entry into force of the Directive, but that user charges introduced before that date may be maintained until 10 years after the entry into force of the text (compared to 5 years in the last draft compromises).
In addition, minibuses and light commercial vehicles would not be affected by such provisions, which is a major change of approach compared to the latest texts on the table and the European Commission's proposal (see EUROPE 11799/6).
In addition, Member States may not apply external-cost charges or variations of infrastructure charges (such as tolls) to heavy goods vehicles if this appears technically impracticable or if a negative impact on health or road safety is found.
In the light of these variations in infrastructure charges for heavy duty vehicles, some changes in rates are also envisaged.
Agenda. Negotiations on this text were not concluded last semester, leading to the approval of a progress report at the June meeting of EU Transport Ministers (EUROPE 12270/7, 12258/4).
On 24 July, speaking to the members of the European Parliament's Transport Committee, Sanna Marin, the Finnish Minister of Transport, said she wanted to reach a political agreement ('general approach') on this issue by the end of 2019 (see EUROPE 12303/6). Discussions in recent months suggested that agreement could only be reached if more flexibility was left to Member States. In any case, the national experts of the EU Council's Land Transport Working Party are to discuss this first Finnish draft compromise at a meeting on 17 September.
The European Parliament, for its part, adopted its position at first reading on this text last October (see EUROPE 12125/2). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)