On Monday, 23 November, the EU Council’s ‘land transport’ working group examined the new draft special agreement put forward by the German Presidency of the EU Council regarding a revision of the Eurovignette Directive on the taxation of heavy goods vehicles when using certain infrastructures.
This new text – a copy of which EUROPE has obtained – makes a few slight modifications to the initial German proposal, which was submitted to delegations earlier this month (see EUROPE 12601/10).
In particular, there has been a clarification of the provision introduced by Berlin to allow Member States to grant reductions or even exemptions for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and not exceeding 7.5 tonnes that carry goods on the personal behalf of a company or driver and not on behalf of another person.
According to the new text, the taxation exemption shall only apply to vehicles weighing between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes that are “used by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises” on behalf of the enterprise itself.
“Some Member States have large toll networks that include many more roads than just the ones which are part of the TEN-T network. Applying tolls or user charges to all heavy goods vehicles would result in significantly more extensive burdens, especially for regionally active small and medium-sized enterprises”, the Presidency added in the recitals of the text.
The Presidency also suggested that any vehicle “owned by persons with disabilities” could be granted reductions or exemptions.
Finally, Berlin has further clarified the provision concerning Member States wanting to apply a mark-up of more than 25% to the infrastructure charge on the same corridor.
To do this, they will have to obtain the “agreement of all Member States directly adjacent to the section of the corridor to which a mark-up is applied”. This mark-up remains limited to 50%, as provided for in previous texts. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)