German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer, whose country currently holds the Presidency of the EU Council, hoped on Thursday 29 October, that he would soon be able to “launch the procedure” necessary for discussions on the revision of the Eurovignette Directive to resume at European level with a view to reaching a compromise at the Transport Council on 8 December (see EUROPE 12509/19).
The German Minister was answering a question on the subject on the fringes of an informal meeting of Transport Ministers on digital mobility.
On the eve of the event, Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg MEP (Greens/EFA, Germany), who is in charge of navigating the revision for the European Parliament of this Directive on charging heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures, had rightly regretted that the subject was “once again” absent from the agenda of a meeting of the competent ministers.
“Its seems as though the German EU Council Presidency […] is dragging out negotiations”, she regretted in a statement, recalling that Parliament had already adopted its position in 2018 (see EUROPE 12125/2) on a text of “crucial importance” for achieving the objective of climate neutrality by 2050.
Already in September, just a few days before a Transport Council (see EUROPE 12569/3), the German press had also echoed the criticisms of the European freight transport industry and environmental associations, which were dissatisfied with the delay in the dossier.
Still, Andreas Scheuer had committed himself to making the ‘Eurovignette’ one of the priorities of the German Presidency (see EUROPE 12510/19).
New German compromise proposal
However, as Mr Scheuer mentioned, it is highly likely that work will soon be resumed at European level, since a new compromise proposal has been finalised by the German Ministry of Transport.
It provides for the implementation of mandatory charging for all freight over 3.5 tonnes 8 years after the entry into force of the Directive, provided that a charging system already exists, the DPA agency reported on 19 October.
The new text would also propose to exempt small and medium-sized transport companies and to grant hybrid vehicles a reduction of up to 75% of the toll price.
According to the media organisation Eurotransport, which has also been made aware of the document, Berlin intends to propose that regions in the EU where there is too much traffic should be forced to pay surcharges of up to 50% of the toll price - provided this is accepted by the Member States concerned.
The proposals made in June by the previous Croatian Presidency of the EU Council (see EUROPE 12502/2) would, finally, have been retained, again according to Eurotransport.
On Thursday, Andreas Scheuer reported that the “national coordination process” had been concluded.
In the EU Council, no date for a technical meeting has been set as of yet, although the secretariat of the EU institution is in contact with Berlin “for the organisation of further work”, a European source told EUROPE. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)