On Wednesday 20 November, the Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) decided that the draft political agreement (‘general approach’) proposed by the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union on road infrastructure charges (‘Eurovignettes’) still needed to be amended before being forwarded to the ministerial level.
According to information gathered by EUROPE, since the text has undergone a lot of changes in a relatively short period of time, questions remain among the Member States.
These issues would concern in particular Articles (7g-a and 7ga) on the application of a variation in infrastructure charges and user charges for heavy goods vehicles, as well as the possibility of differentiating tolls and user charges for light duty vehicles, depending on the environmental performance of the vehicle.
Finland’s EU Council Presidency will look again at the text, taking into account the points raised by the ambassadors on Wednesday. It will then forward a new version of the draft agreement to the European ministers with a view to reaching a general approach at the Transport Council on 2 December.
Helsinki reportedly considers that enough Member States support the objective of reaching a general approach on 2 December and that it is therefore not necessary to schedule another meeting of ambassadors before submitting the future text to ministers.
The European Parliament, for its part, adopted its position at first reading on 25 October 2018 (see EUROPE 12125/2). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)